'Wish It Could Have Made Its Way To The Screen' Mike…

Summary

Mike Flanagan's "The Life of Chuck" offers heart and emotion to Stephen King fans this summer.
Flanagan's disappointing loss of the "Revival" adaptation project reshapes his focus to "The Dark Tower" and "Carrie."
King's flexibility allows Flanagan to infuse his artistic vision into adaptations, promising a blend of the original stories.

While Stephen King has maintained a huge fan base for several decades, some of the most exciting adaptations of his beloved work are happening right now. Earlier in 2025, audiences were creeped out by the gory kills in Osgood Perkins's The Monkey, and fans are gearing up for Francis Lawrence's movie adaptation of The Long Walk, which will be released in September. This summer, audiences are enjoying the heart and emotion in The Life of Chuck, the film written and directed by Mike Flanagan, a huge fan of King who appreciates King's singular storytelling talents.

Although Flanagan has made a few movies based on King's work, including The Shining sequel Doctor Sleep and the 2017 film Gerald's Game, he once shared that there was one project that just didn't happen.

'I Don’t Know If People Are In The Mood' Stephen King Teased His Latest Movie Adaptation & Shared What Fans Can Expect

Stephen King fans are looking forward to seeing several movie adaptations this year, and the author talked about one highly anticipated project.

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By Aya Tsintziras

Mike Flanagan Hoped To Make A Movie Based On Stephen King's Revival

In a recent interview with The Toronto Sun, Mike Flanagan shared the Stephen King movie that he wants to make, but that didn't work out. He said:

"The one that got away was Revival. I wrote an adaptation of that one that I loved. I wish it could have made its way to the screen. I hope someday that it does."

Flanagan addressed this project in a previous interview with The Hollywood Reporter and shared a bit more about it. He said:

"I wrote a script for Stephen King’s Revival, one of my favorite things I’ve ever written, but it fell apart. That’s gone now because I have The Dark Tower. Stephen doesn’t like to have you sitting on more than one thing at a time. It means something’s not getting made."

Based on Flanagan's love for the project, it's possible that his version of Revival will be made in the future. King's novel Revival was published in 2017 and tells the story of a minister named Charles Jacobs and a musician named Jamie Morton. It's sad, unnerving, and features many supernatural elements. Although King is of course famous for his unsettling tales, Revival is more in line with his bleak yet somewhat realistic novels like Lisey's Story, which was published in 2006.

There are a lot of King novels that should become movies, but Revival is a particularly interesting prospect. Flanagan would definitely be the right filmmaker to adapt Revival. One of his Netflix horror shows, Midnight Mass, addresses similar themes of good and evil and also has a storyline about religion, and his passion for the project would likely result in an impressive movie.

Mike Flanagan Is Working On Two Highly Anticipated And Compelling TV Adaptations Of Stephen King's Work

Mike Flanagan may not be developing a movie based on Revival, at least not at the time of this writing, but he's got two significant and exciting Stephen King adaptations in the works. Flanagan is making TV shows based on The Dark Tower and Carrie, and both are ambitious projects.

Flanagan shared that King doesn't give rigid feedback on adaptations and, instead, wants the filmmaker or showrunner to go ahead with their own artistic vision. But, of course, not every movie or TV show based on a King story works well, and King himself said the best adaptations follow his story. In the cases of The Dark Tower and Carrie, Flanagan will no doubt put his stamp on them as he has a knack for telling scary stories that are moving and emotional. But Flanagan will likely include the core elements of King's epic saga and tale about a high school girl who doesn't fit in. As long as any changes make sense, both TV shows will be satisfying.

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