Stephen King’s Dark Tower books get the perfect persona to adapt the series

Stephen King’s epic seven-volume fantasy series The Dark Tower is fast becoming one of the beluga of Hollywood. There have been more than a few attempts to adapt the story into a series of movies or TV shows, but none have gotten very far (including one that has actually made a theatrical release). But it seems a new effort spearheaded by horror writer and former Netflix ace Mike Flanagan has the best chance of actually working, especially since Flanagan has been preparing for this moment for years.

Like many previous attempts to get one Dark Tower series out of the ground, this would include Mix of TV and cinema. As Flanagan says, his version would consist of five television seasons, with two feature films to wrap up the story.

Flanagan’s passion for the series is one thing, but what’s perhaps even more impressive is the specificity of his resume and how well he prepares him for the project. Flanagan began his career in film, directing films such as oculus, silenceand Ouija: Origins of Evilbefore switching to television for a while and doing shows like The Haunting of Hill House and midnight fair. Flanagan is also a big Stephen King fan and has filmed some of his works. With such a varied career, it’s like Flanagan always heads to the Dark Tower.

Whether he designed his career that way on purpose or not, we know for sure that adapting The Dark Tower was always Flanagan’s goal. In conversation with meeting where Flanagan announces the project, he calls it his “Holy Grail”. And in an earlier one Interviewed by IGNhe discussed how he would adapt the series, including trying to “ground” some of the more difficult and meta elements of the novels.

Photo: Eike Schroter/Netflix

It’s not shocking to hear that Flanagan would aim to ground the Dark Tower rather than lean into its stranger elements; After all, groundedness is his preferred mode, whether he’s dealing with vampires, ghosts, or sibling rivalries. And while that might be a little disappointing for Dark Tower fans, who tend to enjoy even the strangest parts of the series – which we won’t spoil here – it’s probably also a necessary evil to embark on such a ridiculous and expensive project to get the way. And to Flanagan’s credit, he’s got plenty of work to do that suggests he could make an awesome Dark Tower series.

Perhaps his best work to date is the director’s cut of King’s glowing follow-up novel, doctor sleep. While the book is an inconsistent and odd entry in King’s vast fiction, who never quite figures out his own universe and stubbornly refuses to take even the slightest influence from Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1980s film adaptation, Flanagan’s adaptation is a work of supreme alchemy .

It combines both the character and feel of Kubrick’s masterpiece while picking up elements of the story that were more important to King, like exploring Jack’s alcoholism as a direct parallel to the compelling and deadly power of the Overlook. Flanagan pulls the alcoholism theme through Jack’s family tree down to Danny (superbly played by Ewan McGregor, in his best performance ever) and pulls the psychic adult back to Kubrick’s vision of the Overlook Hotel.

While bringing the stories of Kubrick and King together isn’t exactly the same as adapting an epic fantasy series, this process of combining King’s work and finding ways for his various characters and universes to fit together and fit together is one of the Things that makes the Dark Tower great. Additionally, Flanagan’s penchant for complex character interactions and excellent dialogue should be perfect for writing the more intimate moments of the ka-tet as the small group of adventurers travel the world.

Of course, that doesn’t mean Flanagan’s Dark Tower project will definitely be great, or that it’ll even happen. But if anyone has a chance to pull off this intricate amalgamation of movies and TV series and actually do it well, it’s probably Mike Flanagan.