Five years after Sony Pictures’ stunning film adaptation, Stephen King’s iconic novel series The Dark Tower comes to the small screen.
Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House) is creating and producing a new television adaptation of The Dark Tower through Intrepid Pictures, which he co-directs with Trevor Macy, according to Deadline.
The news comes just days after Flanagan and Macy’s Intrepid Pictures signed a new overall deal with Amazon Studios (after four years with Netflix), though it’s unclear whether or not Amazon will be involved in the project.
Small screen: Five years after Sony Pictures’ stunning film adaptation, Stephen King’s iconic novel series The Dark Tower comes to the small screen
Mike and Trevor: Mike Flanagan (left, The Haunting of Hill House) is creating and producing a new television adaptation of The Dark Tower through Intrepid Pictures, which he co-directs with Trevor Macy (right), according to Deadline
Flanagan revealed that both he and Macy acquired the rights to The Dark Tower from writer King himself after he sent him a “detailed outline” of how he envisioned the series.
Her acquisition of the rights to The Dark Tower stems from her new deal with Amazon, which was announced last week.
“We actually worked these rights out of our Amazon deal, which doesn’t mean they can’t or won’t figure it out at some point – you don’t know. But that’s something we developed ourselves and we’re really passionate about eventually making it happen,” Flanagan said.
Acquired: Flanagan announced that both he and Macy had acquired the rights to The Dark Tower from writer King himself after he sent him a “detailed outline” of how he envisioned the series
He added that he wrote a pilot for the series, which he envisions will run for at least five seasons, followed by two standalone films.
“Well, to be honest, I saw it break out, five seasons of television followed by two standalone feature films. But I think our priority was to get the TV side up and running first,” Flanagan said.
“We’re not going to put the cart too far ahead of the horse on a project this challenging, but I think this is the perfect way to do it,” he added.
Screenplay: He added that he wrote a pilot screenplay for the series, which he envisions running at least five seasons, followed by two standalone films
Flanagan and Macy’s approach is essentially the opposite of the ambitious approach taken by Universal and director Ron Howard more than a decade earlier.
Back in 2010, Universal Pictures announced its plans for a film trilogy based on The Dark Tower books, with two TV seasons airing between the films to fill in the gaps in the story.
Ron Howard was hired to direct the entire film trilogy from scripts by Akiva Goldsman, while Howard and longtime Imagine partner Brian Grazer produced.
Trilogy: Back in 2010, Universal Pictures announced plans for a trilogy of films based on The Dark Tower books, with two television seasons airing between the films to fill in the gaps in the story
Just a year later, in 2011, Universal abandoned the project entirely due to budget constraints, with Warner Bros. once expressing interest before Sony Pictures partnered with Media Rights Capital to make a film adaptation in 2015.
This 2017 released film starring Idris Elba as Roland Deschain aka The Gunslinger and Matthew McConaughey as Walter O’Dim aka The Man in Black.
Despite the ardent fanbase for King’s seven novels, the film was a commercial disappointment, grossing $50.7 million domestically and $113.2 million worldwide, with many fans and critics slamming the film for promoting violence had downgraded a PG-13 rating.
Movie: This 2017 film starring Idris Elba as Roland Deschain aka The Gunslinger and Matthew McConaughey as Walter O’Dim aka The Man in Black
There was already a TV series in development, even after the flop of The Dark Tower film, with Glenn Mazzara (The Shield, The Walking Dead) as showrunner.
Amazon acquired the rights in 2018, casting Sam Strike and Jasper Paakkonen as Roland and Walter respectively, although it never went into production.
Amazon confirmed in January 2020 that they would not be pushing the series forward, although financier MRC was still trying to shop the pilot script elsewhere.
TV: There was already a TV series in development, even after the flop of The Dark Tower, with Glenn Mazzara (The Shield, The Walking Dead) as showrunner
As for the new series, Flanagan revealed that Amazon is “very aware” of it, though it’s unclear if they’ll be coming on board.
“We are only at the very beginning of this new relationship. We made sure to keep it fleshed out just in case we would understand any institutional PTSD apart from the other attempts they’ve made there to fit it,” Flanagan said.
“So we wanted to keep that separate. But they’re absolutely aware of that and if they’re interested, we’ll be excited,” he added.
King began writing The Dark Tower when he was just 22 years old and has described the series as his “magnum opus”.
The books follow Roland Deschain, the latest in a line of gunslingers, as he embarks on an epic quest to find the Dark Tower before the wizard Walter O’Dim can and uses it to rule over infinite kingdoms.
Series: “So we wanted to keep that separate. But they’re absolutely aware of that and if they’re interested, we’ll be excited,” he added
The seven-book series is considered one of the most difficult pieces of literature to adapt, although Flanagan has had some practice directing two of King’s books that many thought were among the most difficult to adapt: Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep .
“I think we had a good and gradual practice to get there because people were saying Gerald’s Game wasn’t filmable; that was discouraging,” Flanagan said.
“When Doctor Sleep came along, people were like, ‘Oh my god, why would you put yourself in the crosshairs of all the projects you were supposed to take on?’ So I feel like we’ve been gently preparing for that over time, but yeah, none of that goes to waste for me,” he added.
Magnum: King began writing The Dark Tower when he was just 22 years old and has described the series as his “magnum opus”.