Since 2017, acclaimed filmmaker Mike Flanagan adapted some of Stephen Kingthe most delicate books of, much to the delight of horror films everywhere. 2017 Gerald’s game2019 Doctor Sleepand this year Chuck’s life were all well received, even if they were hard to imagine on screen before he made them. Flanagan is now working on A Dark Tower series And an eight episode Carrie series.

Unlike some who attempt to bring the Horror Maestro’s works to the screen, Flanagan truly understands the essence of King’s storytelling: “I don’t think people give (King) enough credit for the humanist that he is and for the enormous heart that beats behind everything. horror,” Flanagan said Deadline in September. “His horror works because he is a man who truly loves his characters. It’s about the people.

Since Stephen King adaptations can live or die by the writers and directors involvedhere are more King stories we just wish Flanagan would bring (or bring back) to the screen.

“Children of the Corn”

“Children of the Corn” has been adapted for the big screen three times – and the 1984 film led to several sequels – but we’re still waiting for one GOOD cinematic version of the source material. This short story follows an estranged couple who stumble upon a rural Nebraska town populated by a murderous cult of teenagers who wander the cornfields and worship a mysterious being known as the One Who Walks Behind the Rows.

Likewise, that of Flanagan Midnight mass is also about a small, isolated community caught up in religious zeal, so we expect Flanagan to be able to work the same miracles with “Children of the Corn.”

The Dark Tower

King considers this series of stories—eight novels, a short story, and a children’s book—to be his magnum opus. It’s the story of a gunslinger traveling through the post-apocalyptic Mid-World in search of the titular Tower, the connecting point of the space-time continuum. A 2017 film adaptation failed to impress fans or critics, but as of June 2023, Flanagan owns the rights to the story and is planning a five-season television series and two feature films. and is in the process of achieving it.

And it could also be his magnum opus – he said Deadline the pilot script is one of the favorite things he’s worked on and thought about adapting for over half his life. However, nothing is a given in Hollywood, especially with no planned filming date or network attached, but we are confident that we will one day get the Flanaverse version of The Dark Tower.

Key to the Duma

After surviving a construction accident and a divorce, Edgar Freemantle leaves Minnesota for coastal Florida, where he begins painting pictures with a power of their own. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Eastlake, one of Edgar’s new neighbors on Duma Key, is an elderly woman who is losing her memory but is haunted by her past. “The tenacity of love, the perils of creativity, the mysteries of memory and the nature of the supernatural – Stephen King offers us a novel that is as fascinating as it is captivating and terrifying,” we can read on the flap of the book.

Much of Flanagan’s work involves memories and memory loss in particular — particularly in Midnight mass And The Haunting of Bly Manor – so we would imagine that seeing his depiction of Elizabeth’s dementia would be particularly moving.

From a Buick 8

After a Pennsylvania State Trooper dies in a drunk driving accident, his young son begins hanging out at Troop D headquarters…and comes across a Buick 8 that is the police’s secret. the state for decades. And it’s a car that seems to have a life of its own. “From a Buick 8 is a novel about our fascination with mortal things, about our insistence on answers when there are none, about terror and courage in the face of the unknowable,” the synopsis adds.

Midnight mass also deals with the consequences of a drunk driver’s actions, and this “beating heart” of the story was Flanagan’s worst fear, as he recounted. The New York Times. Adaptation From a Buick 8 would be offer another chance to exorcise this terror.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

This book follows 9-year-old Trisha McFarland as she gets lost while hiking the family’s Appalachian Trail. Worse still, Trisha is haunted by an invisible entity in the woods – and anything that threatens to overwhelm her with a “nasty brainless panic” – and her only ally is an imaginary version of Boston Red Sox relief pitcher, Tom Gordon.

Flanagan Gerald’s game also depicted a supernatural fight for survival and sanity off the grid, and we imagine his point of view The girl would be just as distressing.

Land of joy

Once in development as a television series for Freeform, Land of joy is a coming-of-age story that, according to publisher Titan Books, has an emotional impact similar to that of The green line And The Shawshank Redemption. The novel follows a young man named Devin Jones who gets a summer job at a North Carolina amusement park called Joyland and begins to investigate the years-old mystery of the murder of a young woman named Linda Gray in the hands of the “Carny Killer”.

At the time of Devin’s hiring at Joyland, Linda was haunting the park’s “Horror House” dark ride — and haunted houses are certainly Flanagan’s bailiwick. But the filmmaker is also good at depicting mysteries that span decades, like The Haunting of Hill House.

Awakening

Touted for having the terrifying ending that King even wrote, Awakening follows a heroin-addicted musician who reconnects with the minister who seduced and betrayed his childhood hometown.

Flanagan has explored addiction issues in several of his works, including The Haunting of Hill House And Doctor Sleep – and he has spoke candidly about her own recovery from addiction – but beyond that, Awakening could end up being the best project he’ll ever make. He was commissioned to write a Awakening screenplay for Warner Bros. in May 2020, but he said Collider last August, the project died after Doctor Sleep underperformed at the box office. “When people ask me what the phantom member is, what project got away, it will always be Awakening“, he added.