Mike Flanagan Wants To Include DOCTOR SLEEP Characters in His DARK TOWER Adaptation
Director Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep, Midnight Mass) is currently developing an epic adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. He’s been wanting to take a crack at this amazing story for years, it’s his dream project, and the fans are excited to see what he does with it!
His vision for this story is to tell it in the form of a five-season series that will be followed by two standalone movies. Flanagan is a super-talented storyteller and filmmaker, and I loved what he did with Doctor Sleep and how he connected it to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. It was a fantastic sequel.
Now, as Flanagan is developing The Dark Tower, he’s looking to include characters from Doctor Sleep in The Dark Tower. During an interview with the Script Apart podcast, Flanagan explained how that would be possible, saying:
“The thing about the King universe is, it’s all connected. And the nexus point of those connections is The Dark Tower. In the Dark Tower universe, there are all these other characters from the King world that come into play in different ways. When you make changes to the source material to introduce characters who could have played a very important role in that story… Doctor Sleep was written after The Dark Tower was finished.”
He then went on to talk about the potential for adding those characters to his Dark Tower project, saying:
“Abra Stone in the Dark Tower universe, as a Breaker [telepathic agent], is really interesting. There’s a character in The Dark Tower named Dandelo, who I think is a cousin of the True Knot, who’s this emotional vampire but who feeds on laughter instead of fear. But there’s room in that world for the True Knot themselves, there’s room for Rose The Hat. There might be room for Danny Torrance. There’s all kinds of stuff that could be amazing, if we’re able to get that property on its feet. There’s ways to pull in other things rom the King universe, and I think The Shining universe – the Doctor Sleep universe – could very seamlessly dovetail into it. Especially since, in our movie, Dick Hallorann all but points to The Dark Tower in his last scene with Dan.”
I think it would be awesome if he created this kind of crossover! I hope he does it, because I have no doubt he could pull it off in a wicked-cool way! When previously asked about the development of the project, he said:
“I wrote a pilot, we view it as a as a series that’s going at least five seasons. And having lived with this project as long as I have, I have an enormous amount of it worked out in my brain. But I have a pilot script I’m thrilled with and a very detailed outline for the first season and a broader outline for the subsequent seasons. I think eventually, if we’re able to get it going, there are some other writers I want to fold into that process whom I’ve worked with before; I think they would be really fabulous for a very small, intimate writers room where we can continue to break it.
“I’ll tell you, more than half of my life, I’ve closed my eyes and been able to watch a lot of this play out, I’ve dreamed about this. That first shot which comes right off at the first incredible sentence of the first book, The Gunslinger, I’ve had that image just rattling around in my head since I was an undergrad. It’s going to have to get out of there eventually, I really need to get it out of my head.
“The pilot script is one of my favorite things I’ve ever gotten to work on. It’s been surreal working on that. So we’ve been floored and grateful that Stephen King trusts us with such an undertaking, something so precious to him, and we hope to find the right partners to realize it.”
Are you excited about Flanagan’s Dark Tower project and would you like to see him bring some of the Doctor Sleep characters into it?
Via: Empire