On the surface, rebooting a fantasy epic that spent decades in development hell only to crater at the box office and get torn apart by critics, causal audiences, and fans of the source material doesn’t seem to be a wise move, but the presence of Mike Flanagan at the helm of Prime Video’s do-over of The Dark Tower is more than enough to generate excitement.
Not only has the horror maestro more than proven his chops for crafting top-tier episodic content through Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, spiritual sequel Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and The Midnight Club, but the sprawling saga has also been a lifelong passion project of his to bring to the screen.
Not only that, but the filmmaker already has the seal of approval from author Stephen King, which is a badge of honor in and of itself when you remember that he’s not a fan of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Speaking at the Tribeca Film Festival, Flanagan offered as much of an update as he could given the circumstances, but it was still enough to ratchet up the buzz a notch or two.
“That’s the one I want to do the most. I have the rights. We’re on strike. But I’m very optimistic that we’re on a great path with that, we have good partners, we can’t talk about it, but I think it’s going to happen. I can’t say for certain, but we look good. So I’m hoping that’s up there.”
Having abandoned Netflix in favor of pastures new, his decision was immediately vindicated on a personal level when The Dark Tower was plunged into active development. Even if it turns out to be his worst streaming series by a country mile, it’s nonetheless guaranteed to be at least 100 times better than the ill-fated feature-length disaster