Posted in: Amazon Studios, Movies, Netflix, TV, Warner Bros | Tagged: amazon, doctor sleep, Mike Flanagan, stephen king, The Dark Tower, Warner Bros

The Dark Tower: Mike Flanagan Wants Crack at Adapting King Series

While Warner Bros' Doctor Sleep (2019) didn't do as well as hoped for, Mike Flanagan, the director, and writer has hopes for another Stephen King IP in The Dark Tower. While promoting his latest project, The Haunting of Bly Manor for Netflix, Flanagan spoke to SyFy Wire about his other horror projects. In addition to the sequel to The Shining (1980), Flanagan also earned praise for his adaptations of King's Gerald's Game (2017) and The Haunting of Hill House for Netflix.

The 2017 Dark Tower starred Idris Elba as Roland, the gunslinger, and Matthew McConaughey as Walter, the man in black. Directed by Nikolaj Arcel and co-written by Akiva Goldsman, Jeff Pinkner, and Anders Thomas Jensen, the film erroneously flopped at the box office, making $113 million globally, and grossing a mere $50 million domestically. "The Dark Tower is forever going to be the story I wish I could tell," Flanagan said. "That would be the Holy Grail. I mean, talk about an adaptation challenge… So many very talented people have poured so much time and heart and soul and blood, sweat, and tears trying to crack that." The opportunity could be there for the taking to do a full reboot since Amazon abandoned their Dark Tower television adaptation following the 2017 flop.

Despite Doctor Sleep underperforming at the box office, Flanagan was announced to write and a Dick Hallorann prequel, which likely takes place before the events of The Shining. The character was played by Scatman Crothers in the Stanley Kubrick film and Carl Lumby in Doctor Sleep. "There's this huge chunk of [Hallorran's] life where King just never provided anything, and that's where we want to play," Flanagan said. "The fun part about that is I've got signposts on either side of that story. I know where he begins, and I know where he ends. It's all about getting him from that little boy at the beginning of Doctor Sleep, who's talking about his evil grandfather and learning about the shining and the lockboxes and getting him to be that man who takes the job at the Overlook Hotel. And who clearly, as referenced all over the books, had some kind of very traumatic experience in Room 237, or 217 in the book." Do you think Flanagan can do The Dark Tower justice?

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