Hey, Mike Flanagan: Take on One of These Stephen King Books That Haven’t Been Adapted Yet!

Has there ever been a time in the past five decades where Stephen King hasn’t been a dominant force in pop culture? The king of American horror has been a prolific and consistent presence in fiction, both on the page and screens big and small, and has shaped the genre for generations. Still, it does feel like the past decade or so has seen a boost in the number of King adaptations we’ve gotten. Maybe it’s because Hollywood and its tech finally caught up to his vision. Perhaps it’s just nostalgia’s enduring commercial power (and the might of King-influenced works like Stranger Things.) Whatever the case, it’s been a veritable boon of King things: the IT duology, another miniseries of The Stand, a wince-inducing Gerald’s Game, new takes on Pet Sematary, The Running Man, and ‘Salem’s Lot, and even deep cut adaptations like The Life of Chuck. Some of them were even made by people not named Mike Flanagan.

Speaking of people shaping modern horror, Mike Flanagan has become the go-to guy for the genre on TV, thanks to shows like Midnight Mass and The Haunting of Hill House. He’s worn his King fanboyism on his sleeve for years, long before he started adapting his work. Both Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep did well, and The Life of Chuck has its fans. He’s currently working on a miniseries of Carrie, and it was just announced that he’s going to do a new film of The Mist.

That got us talking at Team Pajiba, a group of King fans who think the Frank Darabont movie is damn near perfect and not in need of a redo. King has a remarkable book-to-adaptation ratio for someone with a bibliography as plentiful as his, but there are a few titles that haven’t been greenlit yet. Why not go for those ones rather than tampering with perfection? So, Mr. Flanagan, if you’re listening (or anyone in Hollywood, really), we have a few suggestions. Here are some of the as-yet-unadapted Stephen King books we’d like to see you have a crack at!

THE TALISMAN

King has written fantasy on his own but it’s his collaboration with Peter Struab that fans herald as his finest dive into the genre. The Talisman is the story of Jack Sawyer, a 12-year-old boy whose mother is dying from cancer. Eager to help her, he goes on a quest to find somethinig that can cure her. He meets a mysterious handyman named Lester “Speedy” Parker who teaches him all about the other world that we can’t see: a parallel version of our own, known as the Territories. While there are, inevitably, elements of horror in The Talisman, this is a full-blown fantasy novel, with the vibrant world-building to match. The Duffer brothers were supposed to be adaptinig this into a Netflix series but that project fell apart. Phew. Let’s get some competent showrunners in here.

INSOMNIA

Published in 1994, Insomnia is another Derry novel (Pennywise lives!), about a widower whose sleep issues cause him to develop the ability to perceive people’s auras. As >The Guardian noted, this book is ‘a spiritual successor to IT, and a Dark Tower novel in all but name.’ Insomnia is where King introduces the Crimson King, who would become one of the most important characters in the latter Dark Tower books. That could make adapting it a bit tricky but it’s also a dense horror-fantasy about ageing, free will versus fate, and the nature of evil. Done right, an Insomnia adaptation could be one for the ages.

‘THE BREATHING METHOD’

King is just as prolific a short story writer as he is a novelist, and his most famous collection of novellas is arguably Different Seasons. That’s the one with the stories that became the films Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, and Stand By Me. But the fourth one in the set? That one is almost always ignored. Granted, ‘The Breathing Method’ is a bit more speculative than its counterparts, which are largely realist tales about guilt, coming of age, or the enduring human spirit. This one features a talking dismembered head. Scott Derrickson was meant to adapt this one but the project is in development hell. We need to complete the book, guys!

THE REGULATORS

In 1996, King released a pair of mirror novels: Desperation (which was adapted into a TV movie with Ron Perlman) and The Regulators, the latter of which was released under his pseudonym Richard Bachman. The two novels represent parallel universes and most of the characters present in one novel’s world also exist in the other novel’s flipside. It’d make sense to adapt both, but if we’re only talking about adaptations that haven’t happened yet, The Regulators certainly has a lot of potential as a solo work. Taking place over one afternoon, the book details a street in a small Ohio town under attack. Befitting his Bachman identity, it’s a bleak and highly gnarly ride.

DUMA KEY

King is a proud Maine man, but in Duma Key, he ventures to the frenzied wilds of Florida for a tale of beachside terror. The hero, Edgar Freemantle, loses his arm in a work accident and experiences violent mood swings that cause his wife to leave him. He moves to an idyllic island off the Florida coast to recuperate, but strange visions compel him to create vivid drawings with prophetic visions. We kind of got a Duma Key adaptation with the video game Alan Wake, which has a similar premise and lots of King references throughout, but we need more sun-drenched horror on our screens.

AMERICAN VAMPIRE

King wrote a story for the first volume of Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque’s comic series American Vampire, so I’m using this as an excuse to pitch an adaptation for the entire saga. The ‘hero’ is Skinner Sweet, an old West Outlaw who is turned into a strange new kind of vampire and who becomes a crucial figure through the next few decades of American history. We get vampire cowboys! Vampire old Hollywood flappers! Wartime vampires! Now that bloodsuckers are back in fashion, we deserve this epic historical horror.

THE DARK TOWER

Am I cheating a little bit? Well, do you acknowledge the existence of the movie? I thought so. Look, The Dark Tower is King’s most ambitious work, a truly epic horror-fantasy meta-drama that is as much about the nature of storytelling and humanity itself as it is about a gunslinger and the man in black. There’s a good case to be made that it’s unadaptable, at least within the stifling confines of Hollywood IP mining. Still, we cannot help but yearn for what we cannot have, and there’s so much in this series that King fans have been clamouring for for decades. Mike Flanagan actually owns the rights to the Dark Tower and has plans to make it into a series. Well, we’re waiting!