Stephen King shares a new update on Dark Tower series after the 2017 movie adaptation failed to connect with audiences and flopped at the box office.

In an interview with The Kingcast, King shares that he has read some of the screenplays and has been pitched ideas from Flanagan. King praises the work that has been done up to this point, saying that Flanagan begins the story where it should start and that "the beats are perfect." King also jokes in the same interview that Flanagan is "the King Whisperer."

"I've seen screenplays and pitches, and he starts where he should start, and the beats are perfect. Just perfect."

What This Means For The Dark Tower

Flanagan Has Had Success Adapting King

King's positive update bodes well for Flanagan's adaptation. Flanagan has successfully adapted what would seem to be nearly impossible King novels with Gerald's Game and Doctor Sleep. This is a great sign for The Dark Tower, as it's a series that defies genre and will have to be a Herculean undertaking to get right. King also clearly has faith in Flanagan in adapting his work as Flanagan directed the Life of Chuck and is working on a retelling of Carrie as a limited series.

Among the factors in the earlier Dark Tower movie failing was how far it strayed from the novels and didn't hit the right beats. The movie does start with the correct choice of having King's famous line "The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed" and has a compelling scene of Jake training with Roland, but the rest of the movie falls flat. The movie tried to take elements from across the entire book series and put them into one short 95-minute movie, and it didn't connect with Dark Tower fans or viewers coming to it for the first time.

What Challengers An Adaptation Faces

Not All Parts Of The Dark Tower Can Be Included

As King's magnum opus, The Dark Tower will have to cover a lot of ground. However, there are certain aspects of the novels that present major challenges. The most glaring hurdle is Jake's age. If the series begins as the novels do, and King's quote makes it appear that way, Jake is Roland's first ally that audiences will meet.

Jake enters the series at 11 years old and his father-son dynamic with Roland is a key relationship in the story as his innocent nature plays a major role. An older version of the character could present narrative issues with some scenes not connecting in the same way.

Flanagan has a reverence for King's novels and is the best person to be working on The Dark Tower.

With the sprawling nature of The Dark Tower, it also has parts that will likely be impossible to bring to the silver screen. The story not only dips into King's other works, which are all owned by different studios, but into other fictional worlds as well. Aspects of The Wizard of Oz, Marvel Comics, Star Wars, and Harry Potter all play a role in the novels and would be very unlikely to be licensed for use in a series.

Despite squandering the opportunity, one advantage the 2017 The Dark Tower movie had was acting as a new chapter in the narrative. Dark Tower readers understood how this worked as a sequel to the novels, but newcomers could still come to it without any previous knowledge. What makes Flanagan's version different is that it will be an adaptation of what has come before. The series will have to introduce viewers to Roland without alienating them, as he is initially an unlikeable hero who softens over time as the story turns into more of an ensemble piece.

Our Take On King's Dark Tower Update

Flanagan Is The Best Person To Adapt The Novels

Flanagan has a reverence for King's novels and is the best person to be working on The Dark Tower. He previously snuck a Dark Tower reference into Doctor Sleep where Dick Hallorann utters the line often repeated in the books "Ka is a wheel." Where Flanagan succeeds as a storyteller is primarily in developing his characters. The narrative of The Dark Tower is important, but what ultimately grabs people is the Ka-tet, the characters you spend time with on this journey. If he can balance a massive lore with characters you grow to love, the series will be a hit.

After the movie spent years in development hell, I was disappointed with the finished product and thought all hopes of seeing a proper adaptation may have disappeared. While The Dark Tower is not a straightforward story, it should be as omnipresent in the public consciousness as other franchises. Now that another is in the works, I have complete faith in Flanagan to see The Dark Tower through, and King giving his stamp of approval makes it all the more exciting.

Source: The Kingcast