With a few exceptions, Hollywood and Stephen King have had a good relationship. His books have inspired some of the greatest horror movies ever made. But there have also been a few that probably should have stayed on the page. King’s stories have been made into movies by directors like Brian De Palma, Rob Reiner, and Stanley Kubrick. Sometimes the results weren’t exactly what King had in mind. But Hollywood has also turned some of his non-horror stories into Oscar-nominated dramas, proving there’s more to the author than haunted hotels and killer clowns. With more than 50 years of adaptations available, picking a favorite is nearly impossible. But impossible is what the writer trades in, as King has picked his side now, and that director may be laying the groundwork for his most ambitious adaptation yet.
According to Stephen King, Mike Flanagan is the best filmmaker to adapt his novels. King said in a post on X, a massive endorsement for the director as his latest adaptation, Carrie, drops on Prime Video. King has also hinted that the pair may have something special planned for the future. Flanagan’s relationship with King began with Gerald’s Game in 2017, a novel long thought unfilmable because much of the story takes place in the protagonist’s head. It was followed by Doctor Sleep, starring Ewan McGregor, in 2019 and The Life of Chuck, starring Tom Hiddleston, in 2024. His latest project is an 8-episode adaptation of Carrie, starring Summer H. Howell as the telekinetic teen. Even Flanagan’s non-King work feels like it could populate the same worlds created by the author. The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor combine supernatural horror with familial trauma. Meanwhile, Midnight Mass explores religious fanaticism within an isolated community that feels like an idea sprung from an unpublished King paperback.
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Flanagan has some stiff competition to be King’s favorite adapter. Rob Reiner gave us Stand by Me and Misery, two very different adaptations that film fans revere. Frank Darabont delivered two of the most acclaimed films based on King’s works, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. He also directed The Mist, changing the novella’s ending to something so horrifying even the author said he wished he had thought of it. Ironically, Flanagan is now working on his own take on The Mist. Then there is Stanley Kubrick. His 1980 adaptation of The Shining, with Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, is considered one of the greatest horror films ever made. King famously hated it. Kubrick made significant alterations to the characters and ending, substituting the novel’s explosive destruction of the Overlook Hotel with Jack freezing to death in the hedge maze. That’s the real achievement of Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep. The film centers on an older Danny Torrance, played by Ewan McGregor, who makes his way back to the Overlook Hotel years after The Shining. Flanagan built Kubrick’s iconic sets, making the movie a direct sequel to the 1980 film. But he also restored King’s original ending, blowing the Overlook up forever in a boiler explosion. Flanagan was able to synthesize the two versions of The Shining into a cohesive ending. King was impressed enough to say, “Everything I ever disliked about the Kubrick version of The Shining is redeemed for me here.”
After praising Flanagan, King hinted there is more coming: “We might be doing something else that’s really special.” The obvious choice is The Dark Tower, King’s sprawling fantasy series about the Gunslinger on a quest to reach the tower at the center of King’s literary multiverse. The first attempt at a film adaptation was a rare failure for King books. Flanagan has been working on a TV adaptation for years, but his new Carrie series might already be setting it up. The show includes companies connected to The Dark Tower: The Sombra Corporation and LeMerk Industries. Flanagan has not been discreet in his wishes. “I always think about how the different Stephen King worlds could connect,” he said at one point. The project was moving, Flanagan said, at “oil-tanker pace.” Flanagan somehow brought King and Kubrick’s The Shining together. Putting all the authors’ multiverses in the same show should be easy for the filmmaker. He’s at least earned Stephen King’s confidence.
