One of the author’s most celebrated works is getting a long-form treatment. According to Deadline, Intrepid Pictures will adapt the series for Amazon Studios with Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan tapped as showrunner:
“I wrote a pilot. We view it as a series that’s going at least five seasons,” said Flanagan. “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’m thrilled with a pilot script, a very detailed outline for the first season, and a broader outline for the subsequent seasons.”
The Dark Tower is an eight-book dark fantasy series that has long been in the crosshairs of Hollywood. Many stops and starts have been surrounding the series, including a 2017 adaptation starring Idris Elba and Mathew McConaughey that failed to gain traction and underperformed at the box office. After the disappointing performance, Amazon acquired the rights but put them on the back burner. Flanagan seems the perfect choice after directing other King properties, including Doctor Sleep and Gerald's Game for Netflix.
“I’ll tell you, more than half of my life, I’ve closed my eyes and been able to watch a lot of this play out, I’ve dreamed about this,” he added. “That first shot which comes right off at the first incredible sentence of the first book, The Gunslinger, I’ve had that image just rattling around in my head since I was an undergrad. It’s going to have to get out of there eventually, I need to get it out of my head.”
Flanagan claims the series will be “at least five seasons,” bookended by two feature films. Fans have long clamored for a thorough exploration of the rich complex multiverse established in King’s source material. Although Flanagan will be the showrunner, he won’t be alone in putting his stamp on the series. Stephen King has already signaled his approval. “This happened because I sent him a very detailed outline of what I wanted to do with it,” said Flanagan. “And it was in response to that, that he gave us the rights.”
“A project like this, I wouldn’t want to be involved in it at all If we were taking it in a direction that was going to be blasphemous to the Stephen King material, but he’s been very, very supportive and very excited about what we’d like to do with it.”
The announcement comes on the heels of Flanagan’s latest Netflix project The Midnight Club being canceled after one season by the streaming giant. However, he’s not done with Netflix yet. His final project under his current contract, The Fall of the House of Usher - an Edgar Allan Poe adaptation - wrapped filming earlier this year and is expected to drop sometime in 2023.
He now moves to Amazon Prime where he will be tasked with bringing to both the small and big screen one of the most revered King properties in a move fraught with risk and reward.
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