Mike Flanagan Explains How He Got Stephen King’s Approval for ‘Carrie’ TV Show Despite Making Major Changes

Recently we’ve learned that Mike Flanagan is developing a TV series based on Stephen King’s novel Carrie at Amazon MGM Studios. The series is a fresh take on the story of Carrie White, a shy high school girl who lives with her controlling mother. After her father dies, Carrie faces bullying at school, a scandal that shocks her town, and the discovery of her powerful telekinetic abilities.

Flanagan will write, executive produce, and be the showrunner for the series, with Trevor Macy also serving as an executive producer. Melinda Nishioka will manage the project for Intrepid Pictures.

In his latest interview with MovieWeb, Flanagan explained how he got the rights for the show despite making “substantial” changes to the source material.

Flanagan said that when Amazon first asked him about adapting Carrie, his initial reaction was to question why it needed to be done again since it had already been done well in previous versions.

Why do it again? Carrie White is a story about high school violence and bullying, and that feels immediate and important today, unfortunately, even more kind of sharply relevant than I think it was when he wrote it. So there felt like a chance for some true modernization beyond just changing the time period, and to use it to talk about the issues that affect high school kids in America today.

You know, Carrie White walking through a metal detector is interesting to me. Carrie White with social media. The iconic scene in the locker room is very different when people have phones in their hands. So that was the first germ of an idea, like, there is room for this to actually have a lot to say that’s very relevant

Flanagan explained that he made significant changes to the original Carrie story to make it feel more relevant to today’s world. Before moving forward with the project, he reached out to Stephen King to get his approval, since he wouldn’t proceed without King’s permission.

Although King was initially hesitant, wondering if the story needed to be told again, he ultimately liked Flanagan’s approach and agreed it could be relevant and exciting.

And I can’t spoil the changes that we made in order to kind of find a story that felt like it needed to be told. But we made some pretty substantial changes. When I brought it to Stephen King — because that’s the other side of this, if Steve says no, he doesn’t want to see it happen, we’re not going to do it;

And so when I mentioned it to him and said, “What do you think about Carrie for TV?” He said, “Well, why? Leave her alone. She’s good, she’s done. I’d rather we focus on other things.” But when I sent him kind of the layout of how I saw it could work, he really liked it. And he came back and said, “Actually, yes, I think this is interesting, and I think this could be really relevant and could be really exciting.”

And so that was when I said yeah, we should do this. I can’t talk more about it, other than we’re in the writers’ room. We’re having a great time, and I think we’re going to tell a story that will be surprising and impactful, very relevant to our modern society and to issues in our country.

My oldest son is 14 years old, and I look at him as I’m working on this story, and think it’s important for his generation. I think there’ll be something in there that I hope will be useful to them in this world. But yeah, I’m really glad we’re doing it. I’m having a blast.

Flanagan said that he was surprised Carrie became a priority for him, just like he was initially hesitant about adapting The Turn of the Screw for The Haunting of Bly Manor. He initially wondered why he should take on these well-known stories, but once he found a new way to approach them, he realized they were still worth telling.

He feels the same way about Carrie—he’s excited because the new approach will make it fresh and surprising for audiences.

It’s been done dozens of times, that thing is just worn out. Why? Why approach it? And we found an approach that made it feel like, yes, absolutely, this is a story worth telling. So, yeah, I think it’s going to be very, very interesting for people, and I think it’ll be surprising.

Source: MovieWeb

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!