Mike Flanagan struggling to get The Dark Tower TV series greenlit

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Mike Flanagan has issued an update on his long-awaited The Dark Tower TV series, although it sounds like it’s still far from becoming a reality.

Flanagan, famous for Netflix horror shows The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and Midnight Mass, has been trying to get an adaptation of Stephen King’s much-loved fantasy saga The Dark Tower off the ground for years, and while the script for Season 1 has King’s seal of approval, he’s struggling to get the go-ahead to start production on what he has described as his “Holy Grail” project.

The Dark Tower is currently “one of the most complicated properties to get started,” Flanagan told Entertainment Weekly . “Getting the green light on Dark Tower is a much longer and more involved process than anything else I’ve ever approached in my life.”

The priority for Flanagan is his Carrie TV show adaptation for Amazon’s Prime Video , which he developed as part of a multi-year deal he signed with the streamer earlier this year. The Dark Tower is not a part of the Amazon deal, although Flanagan has indicated that Prime Video could get behind it eventually. The big idea, Flanagan has said, is for five seasons of The Dark Tower followed by two standalone movies. But will they be made? That's the big question for fans, and, it seems, Flanagan himself.

Fans certainly hope Flanagan will get his chance to adapt The Dark Tower, especially after the 2017 movie, starring Idris Elba as Roland Deschain and Matthew McConaughey as his nemesis, Walter Padick, was panned by critics. Following the 2017 Nikolaj Arcel-directed feature adaptation, Flanagan said, “We can’t let that be the final word. We really can’t.”

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.