Mike Flanagan’s slate is filled with upcoming adaptations of Stephen King books. He’s done three already, and he has three more on the way. Carrie is coming this year. The Dark Tower is in the works, and he was just tapped by Warner Bros. to make The Mist. If you’re a King-head or just a fan of movies and television, you’ll know those have all been done before. Multiple times.
There is some understandable frustration, namely by King fans, that there are still so many unadapted works that deserve that treatment. Why remake Carrie for a fourth time or The Mist a third time, especially when the first attempts hold up so well? Especially when works like Holly, The Jaunt, Desperation, Insomnia, and so many others haven’t even been touched?
Here’s why that’s not a fair criticism of Flanagan, nor does the argument hold much water.
Mike Flanagan Can Do Whatever Stephen King Adaptations He Wants
It is totally fair for fans of Stephen King to want their favorite books adapted over remakes of existing adaptations. I am hoping the Fairy Tale adaptation that’s been announced doesn’t fall through for that very reason. And the older the book, the longer it’s gone without an adaptation, the more justified the frustration.
However, when it comes to Mike Flanagan, he can do whatever he wants with King works. He’s the main director adapting the author’s books. Flanagan is an artist, so he’s probably a little bit particular when it comes to the works he wants to bring to the big screen.
If The Jaunt doesn’t speak to him right now, then it makes no sense for him to take that on. It would be an inferior product, and while it might delight some fans to see the story adapted, it’s always better to have a good adaptation done by someone who cares about the source material.
It can be difficult to tell the motivation of Flanagan with any of his three upcoming adaptations. Carrie might be because he believes he can bring a new wrinkle into a modern version of the story. The other two are a little bit easier to speculate.
The Mist was given to him by Warner Bros. The specific language of the report stated that WB tapped him to direct a remake, which implies that he was approached by the studio, not the other way around. You may want Flanagan doing something else, but the ones who pay for the movies to get made do not.
With The Dark Tower, it’s probably because the movie adaptation, which foolishly attempted to bring a story stretching eight books to the movie screen, was a failure. Doing it as a TV show not only plays to Flanagan’s strengths (see: The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass), but it also gives King’s most iconic series a real shot at a good adaptation.
Furthermore, Flanagan has already done three King books and done them all pretty well. Those three were previously unadapted. Gerald’s Game was his first, and he followed that up by doing Doctor Sleep. That hadn’t been done before, and he expertly balanced King’s novel with Stanley Kubrick’s original movie adaptation, which is a bit different from the book.
It is a little silly to complain about Flanagan not adapting new works when he just put out The Life of Chuck last year. That’s a lesser-known short story from a lesser-known collection, If It Bleeds, so the argument that he’s not doing anything original just doesn’t hold water.
The final argument I will make is that other directors are adapting new King novels. Sure, Flanagan is on a little run of remakes right now (which he’s earned after doing three new ones that were really well-done), but others are picking up the slack elsewhere.
The Rat, also from If It Bleeds, is announced, and it’s never been done before. JT Mollner, who wrote The Long Walk (also a new adaptation), is doing The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, which is not one of King’s more popular works.
The Talisman‘s future is up in the air, but it was also announced and hasn’t been undertaken before. As mentioned, Fairy Tale is on the way. Billy Summers is, too. Mister Yummy, which most people have never even heard of, got announced. So did Autopsy Room Four, Creepshow, The Gingerbread Girl, Duma Key, The Reaper’s Image, Rose Madder, The Tommyknockers, Mile 81, and Sleeping Beauties.
Conclusion
I totally get the argument. No one is doing it like Mike Flanagan, so there’s a good chance his remakes of Carrie, The Mist, and The Dark Tower are better than any of those other projects. Selfishly, it’d be great if Flanagan took on some of those new Stephen King adaptations, but that’s just not how it works. As an artist, he has to be picky, and as an expert King adapter, he’s earned the right to be.
