Mike Flanagan shared a promising update about The Dark Tower, the TV show based on the sci-fi fantasy novels by acclaimed author Stephen King.
What is The Dark Tower TV Show update?
Flanagan described his upcoming adaptation of The Dark Tower for Prime Video as an “oil tanker” of a series. According to Flanagan, The Dark Tower is a “priority,” one that will get his full attention.
“It’s moving,” Flanagan told Empire Magazine. “We’ve got a lot of scripts done for it. It’s the first priority.”
The Dark Tower was famously adapted as a movie in 2017. The fantasy movie starred Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor, Claudia Kim, Fran Kranz, Abbey Lee, and Jackie Earle Haley. Directed by Nikolaj Arcel, The Dark Tower was panned by critics and holds a 16% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Part of the reason Flanagan wants to make The Dark Tower is to give King’s novels a proper adaptation and make up for the sins of the movie.
“We can’t let that be the final word,” Flanagan said about the movie. “We really can’t.”
In 2022, Flanagan told Deadline that his company, Intrepid Pictures, acquired the rights to the Dark Tower. Flanagan called it the “Holy Grail of a project” and views it as a show that runs for five seasons, followed by two standalone movies.
“The pilot script is one of my favorite things I’ve ever gotten to work on,” Flanagan said about The Dark Tower. “It’s been surreal working on that. So we’ve been floored and grateful that Stephen King trusts us with such an undertaking, something so precious to him, and we hope to find the right partners to realize it.”
The Dark Tower’s path to television has been tumultuous. Glen Mazzara was hired as a showrunner on the series in September 2016. In 2019, Jasper Pääkkönen and Sam Strike were cast in the leading roles of Roland Deschain and The Man in Black, respectively. Ultimately, the show never materialized.
