‘Carrie’ TV Show in the Works From ‘Haunting of Hill House’ Creator

Fresh on the heels of The Life of Chuck, and following 2017’s Gerald’s Game and 2019’s Doctor Sleep, Mike Flanagan is tackling yet another Stephen King novel. The famed horror director, who is behind The Haunting of Hill House and several other hit Netflix original horror series, is set to write and executive produce an eight-episode adaptation of King’s 1974 horror novel Carrie for Prime Video, Deadline and Variety report.

The upcoming series is described as a “bold and timely reimagining of the story of misfit high-schooler Carrie White, who has spent her life in seclusion with her domineering mother. After her father’s sudden and untimely death, Carrie finds herself contending with the alien landscape of public High School, a bullying scandal that shatters her community, and the emergence of mysterious telekinetic powers.”

The series will mark the third project based on King’s 1974 debut novel. Carrie was first adapted for the screen in director Brian De Palma’s 1976 film starring Sissy Spacek as the titular character alongside John Travolta, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, Betty Buckley, and William Katt. The Rage: Carrie 2 followed in 2002, with Chloe Grace Moretz taking on the lead role in a 2013 remake.

Flanagan will write and executive produce the Carrie TV series adaptation under his Intrepid Pictures banner, with Intrepid’s Trevor Macy also tapped as executive producer. Melinda Nishioka will oversee the project for the company. Deadline reports that a writer’s room is being opened for the show, suggesting a fast0track for it. No cast is attached to the project at this time.

Flanagan’s affection for King’s body of works is well-known. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in September, the director said King has “always been my hero as a writer” and the author “was one of the first authors that I encountered, and I learned the hard way that it’s much scarier on the page.”

Since kickstarting his career with his debut feature Absentia in 2011, Flanagan has gone on to tackle several of King’s works. He previously adapted the famed horror author’s 1992 novel Gerald’s Game into a 2017 Netflix film starring Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood. That movie was followed two years later by Doctor Sleep, an adaptation of the 2013 novel of the same name and a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining. More recently, his film The Life of Chuck, based on King’s 2020 novella of the same name, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

Flanagan is also working on a highly-anticipated adaptation of King’s The Dark Tower series, recently revealing during an episode of the Talking Scared podcast that the film “just takes an enormous amount of time to get going. But we’re further along than the last time we spoke. It seems to be moving on its own momentum.”