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Popular horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan, best known for his creation of several thrilling Netflix mini dramas and movies, has reportedly inked a deal with Amazon to adapt an eight-episode series based on a Stephen King classic.
Flanagan previously directed a handful of hit Netflix shows, including The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, as well as Warner Bros’ 2019 horror fantasy Doctor Sleep, based on King’s 2013 novel. Now, he’s once again teaming up with the prolific horror author to adapt King’s 1974 classic novel, Carrie, according to Deadline.
The Fall of the House of Usher creator will also serve as an executive producer on the forthcoming series, alongside Trevor Macy.
Carrie, King’s first published novel, tells the story of a bullied and friendless high school girl who discovers she has telekinetic powers. It was first adapted for the screen in 1976 with actor Sissy Spacek as the eponymous lead, who’s famously doused in pig’s blood at her school dance.
Flanagan’s new series is just the latest in other recently announced screen translations of King’s work.
Chucky 3 director Jack Bender is currently directing an adaptation of King’s 2019 book, The Institute, and Edgar Wright is helming a new iteration of 1982’s The Running Man. Meanwhile, Francis Lawrence is working with Lionsgate on The Long Walk, which was released in 1979 under King’s pseudonym, Richard Bachman.
In addition to Doctor Sleep, Flanagan has also adapted King’s 1992 novel Gerald’s Game and his 2020 novella, The Life of Chuck. The latter, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, has been hailed by the author as “one of the good ones.”
“It’s sad, has a touch of the paranormal, but it’s also joyful and life-affirming. Maybe not what you’d expect from me, but there ya go,” King wrote on X/Twitter.
The Life of Chuck – which stars Tom Hiddleston, Karen Gillan, Mark Hamill, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Jacob Tremblay – is a story told in reverse, beginning at the end of the titular Chuck’s life and going back in time to show how he lived. The film has already been praised as “magnificent” by critics, with Collider going so far as to call it “a contender for being crowned the best King-originated film ever made.”
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The film does not yet have a release date.
King has previously vocalized his dislike of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of The Shining, once describing it as “a big, beautiful Cadillac with no engine inside it.”
He also slammed the director’s portrayal of Wendy – played by the late Shelley Duvall, opposite Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrence – as “one of the most misogynistic characters ever put on film.”
