Mike Flanagan has his sights set on another classic piece of IP: “Carrie.”
The “Doctor Sleep” and “Exorcist” filmmaker is adapting Stephen King‘s novel for an eight-episode series at Prime Video, IndieWire has confirmed. King’s “Carrie” was first brought to the screen by Brian De Palma in 1976. There was a sequel film, “The Rage: Carrie 2” (1999), and a 2013 remake of the original “Carrie” starring Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore.
“Carrie” centers on a teenager who has a sheltered life in part due to her controlling mother. Yet the titular Carrie soon realizes that the torment she has endured both at home and at school with her bullying peers has heightened her hyperkinetic powers, and a revenge plan is brewed….
The official logline for the series teased that the show will be 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 novel was released in 1974; Sissy Spacek played the title character in the classic 1976 film. John Travolta, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, Betty Buckley, and William Katt also starred.
For the limited series remake, Flanagan and Trevor Macy will executive produce under the Intrepid Pictures banner. Flanagan will write the show.
Flanagan and Intrepid are currently under an overall deal with Amazon MGM Studios; Melinda Nishioka will oversee the project for Amazon MGM.
Flanagan previously adapted three King novels: “Doctor Sleep,” which was the sequel to “The Shining,” “Gerald’s Game,” and “The Life of Chuck,” which premiered at 2024 TIFF. He also was going to adapt King’s “Revival” for the screen but told The Hollywood Reporter that the project was shelved.
“I wrote a script for Stephen King’s ‘Revival,’ one of my favorite things I’ve ever written, but it fell apart,” Flanagan said. “That’s gone now because I have ‘The Dark Tower.’ Stephen doesn’t like to have you sitting on more than one thing at a time. It means something’s not getting made.”