TV’s reigning horror champ, Mike Flanagan, says he’s “desperate” to tackle his adaptation of Stephen King’s epic series “The Dark Tower.”
“It’s no secret to anybody that I’m desperate to make ‘The Dark Tower,’ and to continue that journey with Stephen King,” Flanagan exclusively told Page Six.
The prolific TV creator is responsible for many of the decade’s hit horror shows, including “The Haunting of Hill House,” “Fall of the House of Usher” and “Midnight Mass.”
Flanagan has also become known as the go-to man to handle King’s work onscreen. His adaptations of the famous author’s books include the 2017 movie “Gerald’s Game,” 2019’s “Doctor Sleep,” 2024’s “The Life of Chuck,” and the new “Carrie” reboot.
However, Flanagan and King are chomping at the bit to do “The Dark Tower,” he said.
“Both of us are just really wanting to get that up on the screen as soon as possible,” Flanagan told us, adding, “And it’s such a difficult project to get started.”
“The Haunting of Hill House” creator explained that he and King are “still working through a lot of the legal issues” with the series, and trying to make sure that they can get it formally greenlit.
“I have been working on scripts for years – and, those are in very good shape,” he said.
King’s “The Dark Tower” is a sprawling horror/fantasy series of eight novels and one novella published between 1982 and 2012. The plot follows a gunslinger on a quest to protect a mythical structure called “The Dark Tower.”
Considered difficult to put onscreen, it was most recently adapted into a critically panned 2017 movie starring Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba. That flick holds a paltry 16% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Amazon had the rights in 2018, but passed on moving forward with a pilot from producer and showrunner Glen Mazzara in 2020.
Flanagan, who got involved with “The Dark Tower” in 2022, noted that he and King have a “creative” take on the story, and “we just need that starter pistol to go off. We need the green light.”
Aside from his ongoing hopes to tackle that series, Flanagan told Page Six, “there are a number of other books I adore.”
King’s 2014 novel, “Revival,” is a project that Flanagan said he really wish he could have made, telling us, he “had a great script for that one.”
Russell Crowe was initially in talks to star in a 2016 adaptation of “Revival” before Flanagan was then attached to a different version. However, in 2020, he confirmed that the project was no longer in development.
Flanagan also named “Hearts in Atlantis” as another adaptation that would be a “dream project.”
That 1999 King story was first adapted into a 2001 movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Anton Yelchin.
The prolific horror TV creator has also worked with Edgar Allan Poe and Shirley Jackson’s novels, for his shows “The Haunting of Hill House” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
Flanagan told Page Six that he’s also “super into” “Hex” by the Dutch author Thomas Olde Heuvelt.
That novel is one of Flanagan’s favorites, calling it “a terrific and terrifying book” that “I like to wink at.”
He revealed that he included a nod to the novel in his new series “Carrie,” which premieres Oct. 7 on Prime Video.
“There are plenty of stories out there that I would love a chance at,” Flanagan told us.
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