Stephen King’s Carrie to get TV show remake with Mike Flanagan at the helm

It made Stephen King the household horror name that he is today upon its initial release in 1974, and now Carrie is once again being adapted for our screens.

King’s high-school horror is set to be adapted by Mike Flanagan (The Fall of the House of Usher, Midnight Mass) as an eight-episode series for the Amazon Prime streaming platform, according to Deadline.

It’ll be the third adaptation of the novel, which was first brought to the big screen in 1974 by Brian De Palma, with a second remake starring Chloe Grace Moretz following in 2013. There was also a TV sequel, The Rage: Carrie 2, in 2002 — but the less said about that the better…

Flanagan is no stranger to adapting King’s work. He’s previously brought Doctor Sleep (the sequel to The Shining) to cinemas, balancing brilliantly both the tone of The Shining novel and the Kubrick film - and scored a Netflix hit with limited series Gerald’s Game.

Dark times

Flanagan is also said to be drawing up plans for a new The Dark Tower adaptation, following a disappointing 2017 take on the book series starring Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba.

For Carrie, Flanagan will be both showrunner and executive producer, with Trevor Macy supporting him in that later role. A writers room is already said to be established, suggesting that Flanagan and Amazon want to get this one on our screens sharpish.

If you’re after more King, get ready for an avalanche of adaptations on our screens shortly. Jack Bender is directing a series based on The Institute for MGM+, starring Ben Barnes and Mary-Louise Parker.

King regular writes under pseudonyms too, so a couple of Richard Bachman books on the way are technically King adaptations, too — you’ve got Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man, with Glen Powell taking over the lead from Arnold Schwarzenegger, and there’s also a The Long Walk adaptation from Francis Lawrence underway.

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