Stephen King Stories Only Mike Flanagan Should Adapt

Since 2017, acclaimed director Mike Flanagan has been adapting some of Stephen King’s most challenging books, much to the delight of horror films everywhere. 2017s Gerald’s Game2019s Doctor Sleepthis year too Chuck’s life all were well received, despite the fact that they were difficult to imagine on screen before he pulled it off. Flanagan is currently working on Dark Tower series and eight-episode Carrie row.

Unlike some who try to bring the horror maestro’s work to the screen, Flanagan truly understands the essence of King’s storytelling: “I don’t think people give (King) enough credit for the humanist that he is and the huge heart that beats behind it all. horror,” Flanagan said. Deadline in September. “His horror works because he is a man who really loves his characters. It’s about the people.”

Since Stephen King adaptations can live or die depending on the writers and directors involved, here are other King stories we only wish Flanagan would bring (or return) to the screen.

“Children of the Corn”

Children of the Corn has been adapted for the big screen three times, and the 1984 film spawned several sequels, but we’re still waiting for the next one. good cinematic version of the source material. This short story follows an estranged couple who accidentally end up in a rural Nebraska town inhabited by a murderous cult of teenagers who roam the cornfields and worship a mysterious being known as He Who Walks Behind the Rows.

Likewise Flanagan Midnight Mass It’s also about a small, isolated community gripped by religious fervor, so we expect Flanagan to be able to work the same wonders with Children of the Corn.

Dark Tower

King considers this series of stories—eight novels, one novella, and a children’s book—his magnum opus. This is the story of a gunslinger traveling through a post-apocalyptic Mid-World in search of the main tower, the connecting point of the space-time continuum. The 2017 film adaptation failed to impress fans or critics, but as of June 2023, Flanagan has the rights to the story and has planned and is in the process of making a five-season series and two feature films.

And perhaps this is also his magnum opus,” he said. Deadline The pilot script is one of his favorite things he’s ever worked on, and an adaptation he’s been thinking about for more than half his life. However, nothing is set in stone in Hollywood, especially without a filming date or network, but we have faith that one day we’ll get a Flanaverse version. Dark Tower.

Duma Key

After surviving a construction accident and divorce, Edgar Freemantle moves from Minnesota to the Florida coast, where he begins to paint paintings that have their own power. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Eastlake, one of Edgar’s new neighbors on Duma Key, is an elderly woman who is losing her memory but is haunted by her past. “The tenacity of love, the dangers of creativity, the mysteries of memory and the nature of the supernatural—Stephen King gives us a novel that is as captivating as it is thrilling and terrifying,” the book’s cover reads.

Much of Flanagan’s work deals with memories and, in particular, memory loss, especially in Midnight Mass And The Haunting of Bly Manor – so we can imagine his portrayal of Elizabeth’s dementia will be particularly moving.

From Buick 8

After a Pennsylvania State Trooper is killed in a drunk driving accident, his young son begins hanging around Troop D headquarters… and stumbles upon a Buick 8 that has been a state trooper secret for decades. And it seems that this car lives its own life. “From Buick 8 “is a novel about our fascination with deadly things, our desire to find answers when there are none, about horror and courage in the face of the unknowable,” the synopsis adds.

Midnight Mass also talks about the consequences of a drunk driver, and that the “beating heart” in the story was Flanagan’s worst fear, he said New York Times. Adaptation From Buick 8 would to offer another chance to exorcise this horror.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

This book tells the story of 9-year-old Trisha McFarland, who gets lost while on a family hike along the Appalachian Trail. To make matters worse, Tricia is stalked by an unseen entity in the woods—and everything else that threatens to overwhelm her with “disgusting, mindless panic”—and her only ally is an imaginary version of Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Tom Gordon.

Flanagan Gerald’s Game also depicted the supernatural struggle for survival and sanity off the grid, and we imagine his take on Young woman it would be just as nerve-wracking.

Land of Joy

There was once a series in development for Freeform. Land of Joy is a coming-of-age story that Titan Books says packs an emotional punch similar to Green Mile And Shawshank Redemption. The novel follows a young man named Devin Jones who takes a summer job at a North Carolina amusement park called Joyland and begins to investigate the long-standing mystery of the murder of a young woman named Linda Gray at the hands of the “Carney Killer.”

By the time Devin is hired at Joyland, Linda is wandering around the park’s dark attraction, House of Horrors—and the haunted houses are clearly under Flanagan’s jurisdiction. But the director is also adept at depicting mysteries that take place over decades, e.g. The Haunting of Hill House.

Renaissance

It is advertised to have a terrifying ending, which was even written by King, Renaissance The story follows a heroin-addicted musician who is reunited with the minister who deceived and betrayed his childhood hometown.

Flanagan has explored issues of addiction in many of his works, including The Haunting of Hill House And Doctor Sleep — and he spoke candidly about his own recovery from addiction — but beyond that, Renaissance might be the best project he never does. He was determined to write Renaissance script for Warner Bros. in May 2020, but he said Collider in August of this year that the project died after Doctor Sleep turned out worse at the box office. “When people ask me what a phantom limb is, what is this project that got away, I always answer: Renaissance“, he added.