2017's The Dark Tower has the potential to be a great movie, and was meant to be the start of a new franchise telling stories in theaters and on streaming. Unfortunately, it was a mess that not even A-List leads Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey could save.
As a result, the property, which is based on a phenomenal series of novels by Stephen King, fell by the wayside. With a worldwide box office haul of $113.2 million on a reported $66 million budget, it's easy to see why the majority of studios had little interest in picking up where the movie left off.
Filmmaker Mike Flanagan, who has previously adapted King novels Gerald's Game, Doctor Sleep, and The Life of Chuck, announced that he'd optioned the rights for a potential Prime Video series in late 2022.
He's shared sporadic updates since, including the fact that he's written scripts for the series. Talking to ComicBook.com, Flanagan declined to provide a concrete timeline for the start of production. However, he assured fans that he remains hard at work on what sounds like an ambitious adaptation.
"It's not that I've put it down. It's just that the thing is so big, it's like building an oil tanker," Flanagan said of his take on The Dark Tower. "We've been moving it forward this whole time. It's just, that's how big it is. It's constantly in the works, and you better believe as often as you guys may want to ask about it, Stephen King is asking me about it more, and I'm not gonna let him down."
In 2022, Flanagan confirmed that his take on The Dark Tower will run "at least five seasons." He added, "I have a pilot script I’m thrilled with and a very detailed outline for the first season and a broader outline for the subsequent seasons."
"I’ve dreamed about this. 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," Flanagan continued. "It’s going to have to get out of there eventually, I really need to get it out of my head. The pilot script is one of my favorite things I’ve ever gotten to work on."
The Dark Tower will need to be a hit for any streamer to commit to such a grand vision, and it's likely Flanagan will have to deliver one season at a time. It's a complex story and one that will likely require a big budget; fortunately, enough time has passed since the 2017 movie that this take would feel like something new.
Flanagan, meanwhile, has found huge success on streaming with his Netflix series, The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher.
Incorporating themes from multiple genres, including dark fantasy, science fantasy, horror, and Western, The Dark Tower tells the story of a "gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical.
The series actually established King's Multiverse and, in doing so, links together many of his other novels (long before Hollywood caught on to the idea).
Keep checking back here for updates on The Dark Tower.