Stephen King adaptations are really hot right now thanks to a year of some solid movies based on the author's novels. IT became one of the most successful horror movies ever made, but King fans were also treated to Netflix's Gerald's Game. Formerly considered unfilmable, director Mike Flanagan found a way to make the novel work as a movie, resulting in a creepy, good horror movie. Now with one King adaptation under his belt, Flanagan wouldn't mind tackling another of King's novels and revealed that he would be interested in making movies about Lisey's Story and Doctor Sleep.
But the ones I'd want to do the most are Doctor Sleep and Lisey's Story. In both cases, it's because I identify with the protagonists so much. Lisey's Story is a stunning piece of work, a beautiful exploration of marriage. And who wouldn't want to venture back into the world of Danny Torrence?
Once you get a taste of Stephen King it seems like you have to just keep coming back for more. Mike Flanagan directed Gerald's Game for Netflix, a psychological horror film with emphasis on the psychological. It followed a woman handcuffed to a bed having violent hallucinations about her husband, forcing her to find a way to escape her confinement. It's pretty good and Flanagan already knows which other creepy King books he'd like to direct. Speaking with the King-centric site Lilja's Library, Flanagan said that he'd most want to adapt either Lisey's Story or Doctor Sleep, the sequel to King's classic novel, The Shining.
Both of these adaptations seem right up Mike Flanagan's alley. The horror director's filmography includes Oculus, Hush, and Ouija: Origin of Evil; all movies that might sound bad on paper but are actually quite good. Lisey's Story is similar to Gerald's Game and follows a widow who must come to terms with the reality of her marriage and her writer husband, all while being stalked by one of her husband's fans. This is one of Stephen King's favorite novels of his own work and is an examining of his own life and what would have happened if he had died after being struck by a van in 1999.
Doctor Sleep is a pseudo-sequel to the classic The Shining. It follows a now adult Danny Torrence who grapples with the same vices that plagued his father and the trauma from the events at the Overlook Hotel. Now living in New Hampshire, Danny works at a hospice easing dying patients into the afterlife with the help of a clairvoyant cat and must protect a young girl who also possesses the shining from a group of psychic quasi-immortals who want to eat her powers. It's a weird book and is considered downright bad by many King fans. Still, though, there's no reason that Mike Flanagan wouldn't be able to trim down what doesn't work for something a bit more focused.
Mike Flanagan's next project is a television series adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House, so we'll just have to wait and see if another Stephen King adaptation is in the world for the horror director.
