Mike Flanagan Still Regrets Not Adapting Stephen King’s Novel, Revival

Mike Flanagan It appears that director Mick Garris has taken over as the new choice for Stephen King But he recently considered canceling an adaptation of a King novel, which remains his biggest regret. While Garris has overseen several King projects, including the 1990s miniseries The position and shine2011 bone cystEven the music video that Michael Jackson wrote for the song ghostsFlanagan already has Gerald's Game, Dr. Sleepand the next Chuck's Life under his belt. Although it now seems he is finally ready to deliver a faithful version of The Dark TowerOne of the king's projects that got away from him was his project adapted from alive.

During his appearance on his show Echoes from Hill House: A Haunted Painting At FAN EXPO Canada (via ScreenRant), Flanagan was asked about a project he lost that he still regrets not completing. According to the director, that project would be alive, Which is based on King's 2014 novel of the same name. Citing its poor box office performance, Dr. Sleep – Which is ironic in itself – and as part of the reason, he shared more insights into the project that will always remain a “ghost party” for him. He said:

“Absolutely. I wrote the script for Revival, which I love. Man, it’s dark. We wrote the ending, and if you read it, it’s one of the darkest, creepiest endings that King has ever done — including Pet Sematary. It’s dark, but I loved that script. When people ask me about the phantom end, and what project got away, it’s always Revival. I wrote it for Warner Brothers right after we started shooting Doctor Sleep, and Doctor Sleep didn’t do well at the box office. I’m very proud of the movie, and I’ve heard from fans that it seems to be growing, but it didn’t live up to the studio’s expectations. So a lot of projects that we worked on at Warner Brothers died as a result, and Revival was one of them.

“The movie is gone. Steve, very wisely, doesn’t like to burden the same director with more than one thing because that means something won’t go right. There are other Stephen King works that I’m attached to that took precedence over this, and the choice was whether to pursue those or try to move Revival somewhere else. We let it go, but I’ll always long for that movie. Maybe it’ll come back. You never know what happens with these things.”

Mike Flanagan's recent success could revive the renaissance

Although Flanagan has already had success on Netflix with The Haunting of Hill House Before release Dr. SleepHis star has been on the rise ever since. With multiple Netflix hits, a new deal with Amazon, and a track record of making the most of King's story, Flanagan could still make his dream of making alive in the future.

alive It’s a story filled with the usual King themes: addiction, loss, and what might lie on the other side. And as Flanagan notes, the story, and especially its ending, is perhaps one of King’s darkest novels—yes, it’s as dark as the movie version of the book. Fog. This could be another stumbling block. aliveChances are…well, revivals, as studios never want to leave things on a dark or even mysterious note – something Frank Darabont discovered when making Shawshank RedemptionThe real question is whether Flanagan wants to keep the story as it was when he wrote the original screenplay. In a recent Instagram post, the director indicated that he doesn’t plan to have many “depressing” endings in his future films. He explained:

“When I met Kate, my perspective changed a lot. And as we had our kids, and the kids started growing up, it became even more important to me. One day, they’re going to question our work, right, like we’re going to be gone one day, and if they want to look at us in an interesting way, they have all this work they can look at. And I never wanted them to come back to that stuff and be left in despair. So, it became very important to me that no matter how dark the story is, there’s always hope and forgiveness and compassion at the end.”

However, there are plenty of other avenues to market such a project now, and with Flanagan's deal with Amazon just getting underway, there's every chance he could get to make it happen. alive As a Prime Video series or exclusive movie. Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure: the future of King adaptations will be as bright as ever.