Every day that passes, we’re hopefully closer to the thing Stephen King fans have always dreamed of: a proper adaptation of The Dark Tower. The writer’s, well, towering achievement is a sprawling epic that encompasses all kinds of elements of the author’s wider literary universe, notoriously bungled in previous attempts at adaptation. As it currently stands, the rights for that property now lie with Mike Flanagan, the acclaimed filmmaker who tackled notoriously tricky King stories like Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep with considerable success. And while Doctor Sleep – his adaptation of King’s The Shining sequel, miraculously bridging the gap between the author’s version of the story and the Kubrick masterpiece that King notoriously hated – didn’t set the box office alight, putting paid to several planned spin-offs, there may be a future for those characters on the big screen yet.
That’s because, as he tells the Script Apart podcast, Flanagan sees a way of bringing the Doctor Sleep characters into his take on The Dark Tower – sure to make up for having to abandon his Dick Hallorann origin story plans. “The thing about the King universe is, it’s all connected. And the nexus point of those connections is The Dark Tower,” he explains. “In the Dark Tower universe, there are all these other characters from the King world that come into play in different ways. When you make changes to the source material to introduce characters who could have played a very important role in that story… Doctor Sleep was written after The Dark Tower was finished.”
As the filmmaker sees it, there’s plenty of potential for adding those characters into King’s epic series. “Abra Stone in the Dark Tower universe, as a Breaker [telepathic agent], is really interesting,” he says. “There’s a character in The Dark Tower named Dandelo, who I think is a cousin of the True Knot, who’s this emotional vampire but who feeds on laughter instead of fear. But there’s room in that world for the True Knot themselves, there’s room for Rose The Hat. There might be room for Danny Torrance.” While Flanagan has the rights, and a new deal with Amazon looming, specific plans for Dark Tower films or shows are yet to be confirmed. “There’s all kinds of stuff that could be amazing, if we’re able to get that property on its feet,” he enthuses. “There’s ways to pull in other things rom the King universe, and I think The Shining universe – the Doctor Sleep universe – could very seamlessly dovetail into it. Especially since, in our movie, Dick Hallorann all but points to The Dark Tower in his last scene with Dan.”
Can he just astral-project it all into our heads right now, please? Listen to the full interview on the Script Apart podcast. Flanagan’s next project will be his adaptation of The Fall Of The House Of Usher on Netflix, expected to stream later this year.