Autumn Hawkins is a journalist and editor focusing on trending topics in television and film. Autumn has over five years of experience and has written for broadcast, digital, and print. She has also conducted interviews with actresses Meagan Good and Paige Hurd previously.
Stephen King fans are in for a treat based on his reactions to the completed scripts for The Dark Tower season 1.
The long-awaited series helmed by Mike Flanagan is based on King’s Dark Tower books, which follows gunslinger Roland Deschain from The Gunslinger, first published in 1982, to the final novel released in 2004, as he journeys to save the titular location from being destroyed. The upcoming adaptation was first announced in 2022, with Flanagan promising that the show will do justice to the author’s source material.
While speaking with Doof! Media, Flanagan shared that the finished scripts for season 1 are “wonderful” and that King is “very happy with them.” He explained that based on King’s past frustrations with certain adaptations of his work, he is open about when he does or does not approve. Flanagan also clarified why he feels pressure for this project. Check out his comments below:
The scripts for the first season are wonderful. I am so happy with them. Stephen King is very happy with them. He’s been through it with his adaptations. He’ll tell you he’s not pleased. And this one means more to him than any of the others, so the pressure is huge.
Flanagan, who is known for his work on The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass, will be transforming King’s eight-book series into a television adaptation. The fact that the season 1 scripts are complete is only the beginning, as Flanagan will reportedly develop the book series into a five-season series.
This is not the first time that King’s Dark Tower has taken life beyond the pages of the book series. In 2017, there was a film adaptation starring Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Kathryn Winnick, Dennis Haysbert, and Tom Taylor. However, the rating for the film was low, with fans as well as critics, as proven by the 16% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Additionally, the series was picked up by Amazon in 2020, but was eventually dropped by the streamer after only producing the pilot. Deadline reported at the time that the issue was production value in comparison to similar work in the genre at the time. “I hear Amazon executives felt like the pilot was not on the level of other large-scope elevated genre series the streamer has in production/pre-production, like Wheel Of Time and The Lord Of the Rings.”
Screen Rant Report: Subscribe and never miss what matters Dive into the world of movies and TV shows with Screen Rant, your source for news, reviews, and exclusive content. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Flanagan was adamant about not having the film be the legacy the series holds in terms of a screen adaptation: “We can’t let that be the final word. We really can’t,” he told Deadline last month.
The series will be released via Prime Video, as the streamer still has the rights to King’s work for The Dark Tower. The Flanagan-written series does not yet have a release date at this time, but following the news that the scripts for season 1 are being completed with King’s approval is a step further in the right direction.
14 5.3/10 5/10 The Dark Tower 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed PG-13 Fantasy Sci-Fi Horror Release Date August 4, 2017 Runtime 95 Minutes Director Nikolaj Arcel Writers Anders Thomas Jensen, Jeff Pinkner, Nikolaj Arcel, Akiva Goldsman Franchise(s) The Dark Tower Cast See All Matthew McConaughey Tom Taylor
Powered by Expand Collapse
