Mike Flanagan says his adaptation of Stephen King’s Revival is bleak & mean

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Mike Flanagan is no stranger to the work of Stephen King, having helmed adaptations of GERARD'S GAME and DOCTOR SLEEP, and it was announced earlier this year that the writer/director would be scripting a big-screen adaptation of Stephen King's "Revival". The novel focuses on the relationship between a "heroin-addicted musician and a dubious faith healer with a hidden agenda. The minister is obsessed with trying to find a way to communicate with his departed wife and child but ends up connecting to a Lovecraftian horror." Although Mike Flanagan is only attached to pen the script at this point, he does have an option to direct REVIVAL should he choose.

While speaking on The Kingcast, Flanagan offered an update on the REVIVAL project, which promises to be a bleak and cynical outing of the highest caliber. "What I love about it is it’s a return to cosmic horror, which I think is so fun," Flanagan said. "It is relentlessly dark and cynical and I’m enjoying the hell out of that. This is just bleak and mean and I like it for that. I haven’t gotten to end a movie that way since Absentia, maybe? Maybe Ouija? This one was a really fun piece of material for me because I get to be like, ‘Oh, you want a dark ending? Okay. Cool. Get ready.'" The first draft of the script is now complete, but given just how dark it is, Flanagan said, "I will be very curious to see if they let me make it," but added that Stephen King has seen the script and "loves it."

A synopsis of "Revival" via Amazon:

The new minister came to Harlow, Maine, when Jamie Morton was a boy doing battle with his toy army men on the front lawn. The young Reverend Charles Jacobs and his beautiful wife brought new life to the local church and captivated their congregation. But with Jamie, he shares a secret obsession—a draw so powerful, it would have profound consequences five decades after the shattering tragedy that turned the preacher against God, and long after his final, scathing sermon. Now Jamie, a nomadic rock guitarist hooked on heroin, meets Charles Jacobs again. And when their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, Jamie discovers that the word revival has many meanings…

Mike Flanagan has more than a few projects in various stages of production at Netflix. Production on The Haunting of Bly Manor wrapped up in February and features the return of several actors from the first season, albeit in different roles, such as Victoria Pedretti, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Kate Siegel, and Henry Thomas. The new season is based on "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James. Flanagan also had Midnight Mass in the works before COVID-19 forced it to shut-down, which takes place on an isolated island community which experiences miraculous events – and frightening omens – after the arrival of a charismatic, mysterious young priest. It was also announced earlier this year that Flanagan would develop Christopher Pike's "The Midnight Club," which takes place at Rotterdam Home, a hospice for terminally ill teenagers and follows a group of patients who begin to gather together at midnight to share scary stories. They then make a pact that whichever one of them dies first will attempt to contact the others from beyond the grave.