Stephen King’s works have long been the hottest properties in Hollywood, but adaptations of the horror titan’s books are usually limited to the big screen. Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, and Stand By Me are all heralded as film classics, but King’s television forays often fall by the wayside. (Justice for Rose Red and Under the Dome!)
But in the era of streaming series being referred to as “10 hour movies,” King’s most iconic horror novel is being turned into a full-fledged TV series. At the helm of this project is Mike Flanagan, fresh from his movie adaptation of King’s short story The Life of Chuck. A King adaptation veteran and a television horror icon, Flanagan’s involvement in this adaptation is the perfect marriage of source material and form — and another addition to the filmmaker’s busy schedule.
According to Deadline, Flanagan will adapt King’s telekinetic revenge horror Carrie into an 8-episode series for Amazon Prime Video. Flanagan had previously been Netflix’s go-to horror guy, creating the “Flanaverse” of the Haunting series, which included Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, and The Fall of the House of Usher. But he is now working with Amazon on new TV projects, including an adaptation of King’s sci-fi epic The Dark Tower.
Compared with The Dark Tower, an adaptation of Carrie is relatively simple, but there’s a legacy to live up to. King’s novel was adapted into a now-classic horror movie by Brian De Palma. Aside from that, there’s also the 2002 TV movie version starring Angela Bettis written by Hannibal’s Bryan Fuller, and the 2013 feature film remake starring Chloe Grace Moretz.
And that’s not all! There’s also the 1999 sequel The Rage: Carrie 2, even though it was developed as an original story and retrofitted to be a follow-up. There’s also Carrie: The Musical, and who could forget the episode of Riverdale where the characters performed said musical?
But despite all those adaptations, Carrie White’s story has never been adapted into a full series, and there’s nobody better for the job than Mike Flanagan. Flanagan is a well-known King scholar and has directed such adaptations of the author’s work as Doctor Sleep, Gerald’s Game, and now The Life of Chuck. Stephen King clearly trusts him, but this will be the first of his King adaptations to be a series, so it may still be a risky move.
According to the Deadline report, the series is already assembling a writers’ room, so it may be fast-tracked, but Flanagan’s dance card is thoroughly full now. On top of his new Amazon projects including Carrie, Flanagan is also attached to direct a new Exorcist movie, a reset after the panned The Exorcist: Believer.
But no matter how many franchises and oeuvres Flanagan may flirt with, it’s clear that Stephen King is the source material he will always come back to. Him adapting Carrie doesn’t even feel like a surprise — it’s always been just a matter of time.
