The Dark Tower: Mike Flanagan Says Actors Were Circling Stephen King Project Before Strikes

The filmmaker hinted that casting talks had started before the writers' and actors' strikes.

By Patrick Cavanaugh

The ongoing writers' and actors' strikes have seen all manner of anticipated productions be put on hold, but even though Mike Flanagan's work developing a The Dark Tower TV series for Prime Video might be on hiatus, the filmmaker confirmed that there were some actors "circling" the project earlier this year. The strikes understandably have caused delays to projects that were actively in production, but they also have seen even minimal, behind-the-scenes work from happening, so even if the resolution of these strikes at some point in the future will be beneficial for the project, production wouldn't be expected to start immediately. Flanagan did note, though, how much of a priority the project is for him and his producing partners.

"I feel really good about where we are. Oddly, where we are at the moment is completely frozen, because of the strike, but we had a wonderful spring with it and we're making enormous progress on it," Flanagan revealed to The Kingcast, per Coming Soon. "And I have every reason to believe that on the other side of the strike, it's gonna be priority #1." 

He continued, "We have great partners on it that I can't talk about, and we've got some really exciting actors circling on it that I can't talk about, and we have some potentially groundbreaking approaches to the filmmaking of it that I just can't really talk about ... but what I can say is that my fears that any momentum we had developed was gonna be obliterated [by the strike], well, I don't really worry about that."

When it comes to the work of Stephen King, there are countless beloved entries in his library, so while there are dozens of titles that all vie to be considered a favorite among fans, his The Dark Tower series has been praised by fans and critics alike, while also offering connective tissue among many of his stories. After years of attempting to bring the concept to life, a big-screen version of the story was released in 2017 that was meant to lay the groundwork for a sprawling franchise. That film was a critical and financial disappointing, preventing any momentum from developing on furthering the series.

"The thing about the King universe is, it's all connected. And the nexus point of those connections is The Dark Tower," Flanagan revealed to the Script Apart podcast. "So I have the rights to that at the moment, I hope I'm able to keep them long enough to get it made, but that's something else that always affords opportunities. In the Dark Tower universe, there are all these other characters from the King world that come into play in different ways. And that's one where when you make changes to the source material to introduce characters who could have played a very important role in that story the way it was structured...Doctor Sleep was written after The Dark Tower was finished. Abra Stone in the Dark Tower universe, as a Breaker [telepathic agent], is really interesting."

He continued, "There's a character in The Dark Tower named Dandelo, who I think is a cousin of the True Knot, who's this emotional vampire but who feeds on laughter instead of fear. But there's room in that world for the True Knot themselves, there's room for Rose the Hat. There might be room for Danny Torrance. There's all sorts of stuff that could be amazing, if we're able to get that property on its feet. There's ways to pull in other things from the King universe, and I think The Shining universe – the Doctor Sleep universe – could very seamlessly dovetail into it. Especially since, in our movie, Dick Hallorann all but points to The Dark Tower in his last scene with Dan." 

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Stay tuned for updates on The Dark Tower TV series.

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