What on Earth Is Keeping Mike Flanagan From Adapting “The Dark Tower?”

I cannot fully explain how freaking excited I was when Mike Flanagan revealed that he had acquired the rights to adapt Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. I love those books, and I love Mike Flanagan. The writer/director has a history of adapting some of King’s (arguably) least-adaptable books and did so with aplomb! Surely, he would handle the horror author’s magnum opus with similar gusto. Right?!

To be fair, the book series has a history of failed adaptations. Just within the last ten years, there was an absolutely dreadful movie (itself the result of years of Ron Howard attempting to find a way to even format the thing), and then, a pilot was filmed for Amazon, deciding to start with the fourth book (a mistake). Jeff Bezos decided to go with… several other book series instead.

But that did not rob me of my hope! Flanagan has “the juice,” as the children say. I have thoroughly enjoyed the man’s work; Hollywood is still high on him, and he has a true understanding of King’s work. One of the first things he said upon purchasing the rights was that he would start the story at the beginning (which may seem like a given, but neither of the previous adaptations did that).

However, Flanagan’s workload has… increased. Not only has he been adapting a TV series take on King’s classic Carrie, but it was just announced that he will adapt another King property: The Mist. And y’all, I am significantly less excited about that prospect. I love Flanagan and his work. I don’t doubt that he is capable of putting a fantastic stamp on that book, but it already has a movie, and it’s so good that King prefers its ending to his own!

To be fair, these extra projects may not interfere with his quest for the Dark Tower. In addition to the news about The Mist, Flanagan also revealed that the first of possibly five seasons of his Dark Tower show has been written, and King is a fan. “The scripts for the first season are wonderful. I am so happy with them. Stephen King is very happy with them,” the director revealed on a Doof! Media podcast. “He’s been through it with his adaptations. He’ll tell you he’s not pleased. And this one means more to him than any of the others, so the pressure is huge”.

King likes it. A season is written. Mike Flanagan still hot (so hot). So, what gives?! Ideally, he just wants to take his time to get it right, and I think that will be the case no matter what. That said, I think it’s just as likely that studios are a bit skiddish, due to The Dark Tower’s previous failures. Flanagan has a deal at Amazon, and while he says the company passed on a Dark Tower pilot because it wasn’t prestigious enough, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are not eager to mount that journey again, and that may be the case for other studios as well.

I want Mike Falanagan to keep working and doing whatever Stephen King books he wants. I’m not particularly excited to see another version of The Mist, but I trust that he’ll bring something to it. Ka is a wheel, and all things serve the beam, so, hopefully, this all leads him to the same destination… and then he starts all over again, I guess.