Mike Flanagan Is Already Writing ‘The Mist,’ and He Swears It Won’t Be a Retread
Stephen King adaptations have become something of a signature move for director Mike Flanagan, who’s spent the past several years building a reputation as one of the author’s most trusted collaborators. From ‘Gerald’s Game’ to ‘Doctor Sleep’ to ‘The Life of Chuck,’ Flanagan has made a habit of translating King’s most unsettling ideas to the screen with a level of care that keeps fans coming back.
His latest stop in King’s world arrives with unusually high stakes, since he’s tackling a story that already has a beloved, nearly perfect film attached to its name. Frank Darabont’s 2007 adaptation of ‘The Mist‘ remains a modern horror touchstone, right down to an ending widely regarded as one of the genre’s most devastating gut-punches.
That history is exactly why fans have been watching Flanagan’s new take with a mix of excitement and skepticism, and the director just confirmed the project has moved well past the announcement stage. Speaking with Collider at the Toronto International Film Festival while promoting his Prime Video adaptation of ‘Carrie,’ Flanagan revealed he’s actively writing the screenplay for ‘The Mist’ right now, and that he even worked on it during his flight to the festival.
King’s novella, first published in the 1980 anthology Dark Forces before landing in his 1985 collection Skeleton Crew, follows a small Maine town suddenly engulfed by a mysterious fog. Deadly creatures lurk inside that fog, forcing a group of survivors to hole up together in a local grocery store as they try to wait out the danger.
The real horror of the story has never just been the monsters outside. As supplies dwindle and fear spreads, the trapped townspeople splinter into factions, with mob mentality taking hold and empowering extremists who end up just as dangerous as whatever’s stalking them in the mist.
According to Flanagan’s comments to Collider, the new script is due around Halloween, though he was careful to hedge that deadline rather than treat it as a locked production date. Turning in a finished screenplay also doesn’t mean cameras start rolling immediately, and no cast has been attached to the project as of yet.
What Flanagan has made clear is that he isn’t interested in retracing Darabont’s steps. He’s called the 2007 film “wonderful” and “vicious” in past comments, language that makes it obvious he isn’t approaching this adaptation because he thinks the earlier movie failed at anything.
Instead, Flanagan has framed his version as a genuinely different creative path built from the same source material, insisting there’s no reason to remake something that already works and that his new script diverges from Darabont’s film from the very first page. It’s the kind of reassurance he’s had to offer before, having faced similar “but why” questions ahead of projects like ‘The Haunting of Hill House,’ ‘The Fall of the House of Usher,’ and his recent ‘Carrie’ series.
Flanagan isn’t just writing and directing ‘The Mist.’ He’s also producing through his Red Room Pictures banner alongside Tyler Thompson, with Spyglass’ Gary Barber and Chris Stone rounding out the producing team and Alexandra Magistro serving as executive producer for Red Room.
Warner Bros. confirmed the project earlier this year, marking King’s story’s third trip to the screen following Darabont’s film and a short-lived 2017 television series. That earlier movie wasn’t just a critical favorite either, pulling in $57 million worldwide and maintaining a 7.1 rating from more than 371,000 IMDb voters, numbers that underline exactly how high the bar sits for Flanagan’s version.
‘The Mist’ is just one piece of what’s shaping up to be a busy stretch for the director. He’s simultaneously gearing up for a new installment in “The Exorcist” franchise for Blumhouse and Universal Pictures, reportedly starring Scarlett Johansson, which is expected to be his next film to enter production.
Between that project and his ongoing King adaptations, Flanagan shows no signs of slowing down his run through horror’s most recognizable properties anytime soon. Whether ‘The Mist’ can carve out its own identity next to Darabont’s version remains to be seen, but the screenplay is officially underway.
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