Stephen King’s Eyes of the Dragon Abandoned at Hulu

Recent years have seen a strong resurgence for Stephen King, with news of adaptations of his projects seemingly coming on a weekly basis, which makes the recent reveal by Seth Grahame-Smith on The Kingcast that the planned adaptation of The Eyes of the Dragon is no longer moving forward at Hulu feel all the more surprising. The filmmaker noted that the reason for the project’s halt is due to budgetary concerns, in addition to some behind-the-scenes shakeups among executives. Grahame-Smith had also noted that he had hoped to cast Oscar winner Sam Rockwell in one of the lead roles. While the project might be dead at Hulu, it’s possible that the project could find a new home at another streaming service.

The story was previously described, “King Roland’s manipulative magician, Flagg, sees his power threatened when Queen Sasha gives birth to Peter, an heir to the throne. When the queen is pregnant with a second son, Flagg gets her midwife to mortally wound the queen and so begins his plot to dispose of the future king. Peter brings wine to his father’s bed chambers each night and Flagg poisons the potion and frames the son. The magician has meanwhile also been manipulating the younger son, Thomas, showing him secret passages where the boy can spy on his father. Thomas sees the murder of the king and the frameup of his brother, but is torn when Peter is found guilty and locked in an enormous tower. After all with Peter gone, he’s king at age 12. He allows Flagg widespread power that corrupts the kingdom. Meanwhile, Peter must attempt an escape to thwart Flagg and win back the throne.”

Despite the various successful adaptations of King projects that have emerged in recent years, bringing one of his works to life isn’t an assured home run. Back in 2017, an adaptation of IT became one of the biggest hits of the year, though it was preceded by an adaptation of The Dark Tower, which was a major disappointment both financially and critically. Interestingly, a TV series based on The Dark Tower was recently being developed at Amazon Studios, an idea which many King fans endorsed, only for that project to also ultimately be abandoned.

Last year saw the debut of Doctor Sleep from director Mike Flanagan, a sequel to The Shining, which earned strong critical ratings but its box office didn’t live up to expectations. While the film was far from a “flop,” Flanagan recently admitted that he had also been planning on developing a prequel series set in that universe, but that the underwhelming reception to Doctor Sleep has seemingly stagnated those plans indefinitely.

Stay tuned for details on the future of Stephen King projects.

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