Mike Flanagan signs up for more Stephen King with an adaptation of Revival

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Mike Flanagan has tackled the work of Stephen King twice before, and THR has reported that the writer/director is set to return to the world of Stephen King with an adaptation of "Revival." The 2014 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."

Josh Boone (THE NEW MUTANTS) had previously tried his hand at adapting the novel, but that task now falls to Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy, the pair behind the feature-film adaptations of Stephen King's GERALD'S GAME and DOCTOR SLEEP. At the moment, Flanagan is just attached to pen the script for REVIVAL, but he does have an option to direct. Both Flanagan and Macy will produce via Intrepid Pictures. We've been fortunate to receive more than a few quality Stephen King adaptations in recent years, so here's hoping that REVIVAL will be another.

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 as Midnight Mass, which was in the midst of production 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 recently announced 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.