The Dark Tower series, which is made up of eight books, is arguably Stephen King's most ambitious work. An epic, often very complex tale, Sony Pictures finally brought to the big screen in 2017.
Idris Elba was cast as the Gunslinger, Roland Deschain, while Matthew McConaughey took on the role of the Man in Black. Serving as both an adaptation of King's work and a loose sequel, it didn't connect with audiences and bombed both critically and commercially.
Carrie showrunner Mike Flanagan has repeatedly expressed his interest in bringing The Dark Tower to television. His multi-season plan sounds like a very expensive endeavour, and in the streaming age, committing to that big of a story is easier said than done.
While Flanagan has said his adaptation would make "little changes" to help the story better fit television, he's confirmed that his take would be "remarkably faithful" to King's work (the author is reportedly "very happy" with what he's seen in scripts for a potential Season 1).
Talking on The Process Unlocked (via SFFGazette.com), Flanagan confirmed he intends to adapt the books in chronological order. So, he'd begin with The Gunslinger before expanding the mythology "one brick at a time," just as King did on the page.
"That's the way to do it," he added, explaining why it's the only approach that works with The Dark Tower. "The problem with the other approaches is people who try to jump in in the middle, or people who try to jump in at a different point. Because you can't throw an audience face-first into this huge universe. It's overwhelming."
"King did it right, he walked you in starting with two people and nothing else, and walks you one step at a time," Flanagan continued. "So my adaptation was that. It was just doing the books, and doing them in order."
Incorporating themes from multiple genres, including dark fantasy, science fantasy, horror, and Western, The Dark Tower tells the story of a "gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical.
The series actually established King's Multiverse and, in doing so, links together many of his other novels (long before Hollywood caught on to the idea). The books unfurl the story relatively slowly, with much of what's happening not becoming clear until much later in the series; making that palatable to impatient streaming audiences will be another big challenge for Flanagan.
You can check out our interview with the filmmaker in the player below.