Fantasy Mike Flanagan's Adaptation of Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower'

[:eek:]

Maybe King should try to get back the rights for Salem's Lot, if it's possible. I have no idea how this stuff works. But I doubt Warner will do anything with those rights in the near future anyway. Or maybe they can turn Callahan into a bit more mysterious character, simply a nameless priest, and not going into detail about his whole history

 

[Deck Rickard]

Flanagan gave a few updates on the newest episode of The Kingcast.

A lot of what’s taken so long has just been getting the rights straightened out, because it encompasses so many things (he specifically mentioned Father Callahan and Warner Bros having the Salem’s Lot rights), but that hasn’t stopped him from writing scripts and discussing casting. He and King are both pleased with the scripts.

He sees the “What about the Dark Tower??” responses every time a project he’s involved with is announced, but this (rather understandably) isn’t an easy thing to get off the ground. He also mentioned that if there’s ever a point where this thing is dead, he’s not going to string anyone along with false hope.

Thanks for the update, and that makes a lot of sense. I hadn’t considered how all the connections to other King books complicates the rights. Callahan and Flagg are the two biggest ones but there are other ones too. And I wouldn’t want Flanagan to be forced to change them to different characters. Not to mention there are also elements of the story that connect to properties that King didn’t write as well, like The Wizard of Oz and Dr. Doom. They can definitely scrap the Harry Potter stuff though, because that was stupid and (as always) f***JK Rowling.

 

[:eek:]

Flanagan Talks The Dark Tower And Changes Between The Books And Adaptations​

Posted: June 9, 2025, 23:39
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Mike Flanagan talk about The Dark Tower with The KingCast and acknowledges that it cannot be a strict adaptation. It sounds like we should be prepared for changes compared to the books.

The question for me is this. If there is a character that he can’t get the right to use (like Father Callahan for example) should he replace it with a different character from another King book or should he replace it with a new character that can do the part? I think I would actually prefer the later, how about you?

Here is what Flanagan said:

[Randal] Flagg you have to. You know you have to get into Father Callahan, like that's not negotiable. Which means that you're going to Warner Brothers, cause they've got 'Salem's Lot,' you got to talk to them. Crimson King is actually a whole different thing, because there's a history of adaptation with 'Hearts in Atlantis,' which pulls in all sorts of stuff based on that deal that shouldn't have been pulled in because it's not in the movie. 'Low Men in Yellow Coats' also, you gotta go to Warner Brothers, because when they optioned the story, that was also included, whether they put it in the movie or not. So there's all sorts of stuff.

I'm aiming for something...it can't be what's in the book, it's not logistically possible. And I think to the cinematic audience, they're not going to pick up on 'Insomnia' the way Constant Readers are. What you need from that is a character with psychic ability, who's going to be brought in as one of the Breakers, and it's going to be really important how you deal with that. What are the other characters in the King universe that could fulfill a role like that and get the fans excited, even though you're changing it?

For me, I'm like what about Abra Stone? When you go into the what if you can't get Father Callahan, which is always a thing that comes up, and I think we can, but what if you can't, well who can fill that role? Who's a character that's presumed dead in another King story who can come into this story and have a similar arc of redemption? Do you go to Dick Hallorann? I'm just saying, what do you do here?

How do you make it so the King fans will lean forward and be excited about this particular change, but that people who haven't read the books and are being introduced to this connected universe will be able to recognize it from their cinematic experience? That's part of what makes this thing so goddamned hard to do.

Most of those decisions don't have to play into the first couple seasons. Luckily, the gift of The Dark Tower is if you do it right, and you start at the beginning, you're dealing with one character following another character in a barren wasteland, where there's not even a structure to distract you. It is one person following another person. It's very simple, and everything is added.

And it's added at the right cadence that you're meeting new characters, and the world is expanding, so that by the time you're arguing about what to do with Father Callahan, and to what extent the Emerald City is going to come into play, by then you've already built enough of this that the audience is with you whether they're familiar with the source material. That's what makes it so goddamned challenging to do.

Copied from Lilja's Library: Lilja's Library: The World of Stephen King

 

[Deck Rickard]

He raises some good points.

One thing that has always troubled me about trying to tell the story the way that it’s laid out in the books is some of the ages of the younger characters. This becomes especially hard to do on a TV series. For example, in The Gunslinger, we get flashbacks to young Roland, Cuthbert and Alain going through Gunslinger training. Then, much later in the story, we pick back up with them and get the rest of Roland’s background. Some time passes between both of those moments of young Roland’s life, but not so much that he would look, say, 3-4 years older. Although I suppose the second part of that story (Wizard and Glass) could work if Roland was a bit older.

There’s also Jake. He enters the story in The Gunslinger, and then reappears at the tail end of the second book, and he’s the same age. It’s not as wide a gap as the one between The Gunslinger and Wizard and Glass, but Jake is supposed to be about 12 (if I remember right) and kids at that age begin to age rapidly, so there’s a good chance the actor they cast could look very different by the time they do the second book. I suppose they could alter the story a bit so that it would work if the actor is older, but it still may complicate things (just look at how delays have forced the producers of Stranger Things to have to retool seasons or even recast some roles because the original kids have all grown up). It’s not an impossible task but it does make it difficult.