Remakes of Stephen King stories are nothing new. Last year saw a redo of The Running Man that steered closer to the novel, plus the TV spinoff of IT that brought to life some of the surprising elements of King’s totemic book. News broke just weeks ago for a Stephen King remake that no one saw coming, or even thought was necessary: The Mist. It was revealed earlier this year that frequent King collaborator Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep, Life of Chuck, Gerald’s Game) was set to remake The Mist, marking the second feature film based on the King novella after Frank Darabont’s 2007 movie.
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The initial reaction to news of a remake of The Mist left fans puzzled. Not only did Darabont appear to put a complete stamp on the King material at the time of the film’s release almost twenty years ago, but the change made to the ending has even been endorsed by the author as “better” than his original work. When asked “why” he would remake a movie many consider top-tier, Flanagan had an answer that was (as expected) on point and full of grace, replying on Bluesky: “The Mist is going to be great. If there wasn’t an excellent answer to ‘why’, I wouldn’t do it…I’ve been lucky so far in my career to only take on projects I’m really excited about.”
Mike Flanagan Details New Take on Stephen King’s The Mist
Flanagan also made a note that the “why” element for his upcoming project has defined some of the biggest hits of his career, something that has made him one of the most distinct filmmakers and storytellers working in Hollywood. In another reply, he noted that the same comment, “why?,” was levied at his shows The Haunting of Hill House, Bly Manor, The Fall of the House of Usher, and even the upcoming The Exorcist film that he’s working on. With The Mist, he notes that he’s not remaking Darabont’s movie, but doing something else entirely with King’s original source material.
“I love Darabont’s film, and there’s zero point in remaking it. Which is why I’m going in a different direction,” Flanagan added. “I learned a long ago never to try to predict what the fans will or won’t argue about (everybody needs to relax, frankly; I just saw a whole chain of people foaming at the mouth over fan-made AI slop posters for The Exorcist)… but yeah, this isn’t a retread. The differences start page 1.”
If we can drive Flanagan’s own point home even further, this isn’t the first time he has tackled a Stephen King adaptation that would have scratched heads and raised eyebrows. Flanagan’s first King movie was 2017’s Gerald’s Game, an adaptation that was long considered “unfilmable” due to the novel largely being an introspective work about a woman trapped in a single location. Not only did Flanagan make it work, he proved that no concept was really off the table when it came to adapting a King novel.
The filmmaker proved it a second time with 2019’s Doctor Sleep, not only making The Shining sequel book into a feature film that honored King’s wishes but also managing to act as a follow-up to Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 classic film (which King famously despised). Even last year, Flanagan took King’s The Life of Chuck, a film told in reverse and which primarily includes star Tom Hiddleston in only the middle section.
What we’re getting at is that Flanagan has earned the right to take swings at things that make us raise our eyebrows initially; he’s already proven he can do it countless times. So whatever idea he has for The Mist, it will be worth the wait. Currently, Flanagan has his new take on Carrie and a new The Exorcist movie in the works, meaning we’ll have to wait on his new adaptation of The Mist.
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Official art by Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme -
A photo of the Retrovolt Arcade taken in 2017, showing several classic arcade cabinets and stools. -
Image Courtesy of Paramount
