Of course, The Dark Tower has been here before. Having been planned and abandoned as a TV series/theatrical release crossover before the MCU proved that audiences are willing to straddle both mediums for the right project, The Dark Tower eventually hit the big screen as a movie that didn’t want to be any of King’s novels and didn’t put enough of its own into the story to make anyone care. Flanagan would certainly not want to do it unless he was doing it faithfully and fully.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
How Could The Dark Tower Work On Screen?
Sony Pictures
Mike Flanagan has seen The Dark Tower as his ultimate project for some time, but the main worry is that if he sticks too closely to King’s story – which involves a western style opening chapter, time-travel, doors to other worlds, characters pulled straight from Frank L. Baum’s Oz stories, and even a fictional version of Stephen King himself – it may never make it to the end of its very long journey. However, Flanagan has a plan regardless.
“I wrote a pilot, we view it as a series that’s going at least five seasons. And having lived with this project as long as I have, I have an enormous amount of it worked out in my brain. But 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. Well, to be honest, the way that I have seen it breaking out is five seasons of television, followed by two stand-alone features. But I think our priority has been trying to get the television side of it going first. We’re not going to put the cart too far ahead of the horse on such a challenging project, but that I think is the perfect way to do it.”
