Filmmaker Mike Flanagan has been trying to get his own take on The Dark Tower off the ground in recent years, at once describing the adaptation as a dream project, something he kept “coming back to” as he couldn’t get the story out of his mind. By December of last year, Flanagan said he’d acquired the rights to The Dark Tower and was working on an adaptation with Trevor Macy. He said that the deal wad made prior to his lucrative partnership with Amazon Studios, though he also teased that the company could potentially get involved with the planned adaptation at some point.
On Twitter, a recent post addressed to Amazon encouraged the company to help Flanagan make his Dark Tower adaptation happen, preferably with five to eight seasons of a series. The post gained a lot of support with fans and it wasn’t long before it caught the attention of the original author himself, Stephen King. In response to the post, King wrote, “The writer happens to agree.”
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAYSCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
“I wrote a pilot, we view it as a series that’s going at least five seasons,” Flanagan previously told Deadline about the plan he has in mind for his version of The Dark Tower. “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.”
Flanagan also teased that he’d ideally like to make two standalone feature films along with the series, though he also noted, “I think our priority has been trying to get the television side of it going first. We’re not going to put the cart too far ahead of the horse on such a challenging project, but that I think is the perfect way to do it.”
Related: Why Mike Flanagan Is a Perfect Director for Stephen King’s The Dark Tower Series
Would The Dark Tower Work Better as a Series?
Sony Pictures
What’s interesting is that Amazon had previously tested the waters with rebooting The Dark Tower, as they had put a series into development at Prime Video in 2018. At the time, it was annouced that Sam Strike would star as a new incarnation of Roland Deschain with other cast members including Jasper Pääkkönen, Michael Rooker, and Jerome Flynn. Ultimately, however, Amazon passed on moving forward with the series. It was after this when Flanagan acquired the rights, separately from his deal with Amazon.
The Dark Tower, an eight-novel series penned by Stephen King, was previously adapted into a feature film. Released in 2017, the movie starred Idris Elba as Roland opposite Matthew McConaughey as The Man in Black. The hope was to continue the story with sequels, but the film’s underperformance at the box office, coupled with overly negative reviews, put a stop to those plans. There’s a popular theory with fans that a series adaptation would be much better received than the movie as there’s too much story in the source material to try to cram into one feature-length film.
In any case, given the ongoing writers strike, fans shouldn’t expect production to start in the immediate future.
You can view the original article HERE.
