Stephen King’s novella The Mist is getting yet another adaptation, this time by Mike Flanagan, and the filmmaker revealed how his version will be different from the book and original movie.
After King published The Mist in 1980, it took 27 years for the story to make its way to the big screen. The 2007 film, directed by Frank Darabont, grossed $57.47 million and earned solid reviews (with a 74% Rotten Tomatoes score). A TV remake aired a decade later but got mixed reviews and was canceled after just one season.
Now Flanagan is trying his hand at an adaptation. During an interview with EW at San Diego Comic-Con, he acknowledged that 2007’s The Mist was done “spectacularly,” and he considers it “one of the most brutal movies I’ve ever seen,” with a “jaw-dropping” ending.
Flanagan’s interpretation of the story will be “very different,” which he felt was important because he needed to justify revisiting The Mist all over again. “Why are we doing this? What are we gonna do that justifies itself?” he asked himself.
Flanagan presented his idea to King, who also loved Darabont’s The Mist, and got the bestselling horror author’s blessing. He never would have signed on to the project if King wasn’t interested.
While he didn’t divulge details about how his version of The Mist will be different than what came before, Flanagan did explain the process as being similar to taking “LEGOS apart and [starting to build] something new.”
“With Carrie and with The Mist, they’ve both been done spectacularly well already as feature films. So with Carrie, it was very much about finding a new path, trying to find something new to build. The Mist is the same.
“It’s one of the most brutal movies I’ve ever seen. That ending is jaw-dropping. My way into the story, through the story, and out of that story is very different. When I presented that to Steve [King] — that was also important because he loves Frank’s movie — it’s like, Why are we doing this? What are we gonna do that justifies itself? So it’s a different type of adaptation for me…[one in which he will] take the LEGOs apart and start building something new.
“With [King’s] blessing, always! I would never contemplate it without it. But, yeah, it’s a different way to adapt things for me. And it’s interesting to me that he’s a storyteller whose ideas can have multiple lives.”
Flanagan is no stranger to adapting King’s works. After all, he directed and wrote Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep and The Life of Chuck, and he’s the creator, showrunner and executive producer of Prime Video’s upcoming TV remake of Carrie, which premieres October 7.
Like with The Mist, Carrie is an example of a situation in which Flanagan had to justify another adaptation, especially since the 1976 film received overwhelmingly positive reviews and earned nominations at the Oscars and Golden Globes. Carrie has also been remade multiple times, though Flanagan’s version is the first time the story will be told as a TV show.
Flanagan is not only directing The Mist, but he’s also the screenwriter and a producer with Tyler Thompson, Gary Barber, Chris Stone and Alexandra Magistro, news that was announced earlier this year.
The story centers on an eerie fog that descends upon a small town, after which creatures start emerging and terrorizing its citizens. The protagonist and his son, along with other residents, hide out in a grocery store as a means to survive.
Aside from The Mist and his other King adaptations, Flanagan has also directed the films Absentia, Oculus, Ouija: Origin of Evil and the upcoming The Exorcist: Martyrs, and created the TV shows The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass and The Fall of the House of Usher.
- Release Date
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November 21, 2007
- Runtime
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126 minutes
- Director
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Frank Darabont
- Writers
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Frank Darabont