Mike Flanagan Adapting One Of Stephen King’s Greatest Horror Stories For TV

Mike Flanagan’s latest foray into horror will adapt the 1974 novel Carrie. It tells the story of a sheltered teenage girl, raised by her strict, abusive, religious mother. Bullying at school and her mother’s abuse caused her latent telekinesis to manifest, leading her to use that power in increasingly uncontrolled, violent ways. 

While Mike Flanagan will be the first to adapt the story into a series, Carrie has a long history of film adaptations. The most famous version is the 1976 Brian de Palma version starring Sissy Spacek, which is widely regarded as a classic horror masterpiece. That movie spawned a sequel in 1999, with a 2002 TV movie and a 2013 feature reboot following. 

An expert at adapting Stephen King at this point, Mike Flanagan is a great choice to be Carrie’s showrunner. He wrote the script for The Shining follow-up Doctor Sleep, which was a major hit. He also wrote Gerald’s Game and directed The Life of Chuck which comes out in November.

Of course, Mike Flanagan’s work in TV is also heavily connected to horror, giving him the skills he’ll need for Carrie. He co-created The Midnight Club with Leah Fong and created Midnight Mass and The Fall of the House of Usher. The writer-director also created both The Haunting of Hill House and its follow-up The Haunting of Bly Manor which were major hits for Netflix. 

Stephen King fans should be excited to see Mike Flanagan expanding Carrie into a full series, leaving more room for character work and a gradual build-up of tension. With limited runtime the films have always had to pick and choose story elements from the novel to leave out, something the show will have to do significantly less of. Amazon also seems to be using it as a chance to update the 50-year-old story, calling their version a “bold and timely reimagining.”

From an industry standpoint, Mike Flanagan making Carrie for Amazon is a major shakeup, as the product of the writer-director’s new deal with the company. Most of his notable TV was for Netflix, giving the streaming platform some of its biggest horror hits. In 2022, he signed a deal with Amazon MGM Studios which could be a major win for Amazon Prime in the streaming wars. 

Fans of the original novel and Brian de Palma’s adaptation can rest easy knowing that Mike Flanagan is the one shepherding the new Carrie. He’s proven that he’s a capable storyteller, specializing in adapting horror literature in general and Stephen King novels in particular, making it a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, fans hoping for a release date or details about casting are going to have to wait until the show is further along in development.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter