Flanagan Talks The Dark Tower And Changes Between The Books And Adaptations
Posted: June 9, 2025, 23:39
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The question for me is this. If there is a character that he can’t get the right to use (like Father Callahan for example) should he replace it with a different character from another King book or should he replace it with a new character that can do the part? I think I would actually prefer the later, how about you?
Here is what Flanagan said:
[Randal] Flagg you have to. You know you have to get into Father Callahan, like that's not negotiable. Which means that you're going to Warner Brothers, cause they've got 'Salem's Lot,' you got to talk to them. Crimson King is actually a whole different thing, because there's a history of adaptation with 'Hearts in Atlantis,' which pulls in all sorts of stuff based on that deal that shouldn't have been pulled in because it's not in the movie. 'Low Men in Yellow Coats' also, you gotta go to Warner Brothers, because when they optioned the story, that was also included, whether they put it in the movie or not. So there's all sorts of stuff.
I'm aiming for something...it can't be what's in the book, it's not logistically possible. And I think to the cinematic audience, they're not going to pick up on 'Insomnia' the way Constant Readers are. What you need from that is a character with psychic ability, who's going to be brought in as one of the Breakers, and it's going to be really important how you deal with that. What are the other characters in the King universe that could fulfill a role like that and get the fans excited, even though you're changing it?
For me, I'm like what about Abra Stone? When you go into the what if you can't get Father Callahan, which is always a thing that comes up, and I think we can, but what if you can't, well who can fill that role? Who's a character that's presumed dead in another King story who can come into this story and have a similar arc of redemption? Do you go to Dick Hallorann? I'm just saying, what do you do here?
How do you make it so the King fans will lean forward and be excited about this particular change, but that people who haven't read the books and are being introduced to this connected universe will be able to recognize it from their cinematic experience? That's part of what makes this thing so goddamned hard to do.
Most of those decisions don't have to play into the first couple seasons. Luckily, the gift of The Dark Tower is if you do it right, and you start at the beginning, you're dealing with one character following another character in a barren wasteland, where there's not even a structure to distract you. It is one person following another person. It's very simple, and everything is added.
And it's added at the right cadence that you're meeting new characters, and the world is expanding, so that by the time you're arguing about what to do with Father Callahan, and to what extent the Emerald City is going to come into play, by then you've already built enough of this that the audience is with you whether they're familiar with the source material. That's what makes it so goddamned challenging to do.
