Stephen King Loves Mike Flanagan’s REVIVAL Script

Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep director Mike Flanagan is working on yet another Stephen King adaptation as we speak. This time it’s King’s 2014 novel Revival with producer Trevor Macy. And today, Flanagan let us all know that the first draft of the script is done and Stephen King loves it.

Flanagan tells The Kingcast: “It’s a return to cosmic horror which I think is so fun. It is relentlessly dark and cynical and I’m enjoying the hell out of that. I think a lot of King’s work is like this too, there’s a safety in the sentimental approach to a lot of those stories and this is just bleak and mean and I like it for that. I haven’t gotten to end a movie that way since, geez, Absentia maybe? Maybe Ouija? I get to be like ‘Oh you want a dark ending? Cool, get ready. I’ve gotten pretty good about digging my heels in on stuff like that. It’s a lot easier to do, I can talk a big game when I’ve got Stephen King in my corner advocating for the same ending.”

Here’s the novel’s rundown via Amazon:

A dark and electrifying novel about addiction, fanaticism, and what might exist on the other side of life.

In a small New England town, over half a century ago, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls feel the same about Reverend Jacobs—including Jamie’s mother and beloved sister, Claire. With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond based on a secret obsession. When tragedy strikes the Jacobs family, this charismatic preacher curses God, mocks all religious belief, and is banished from the shocked town.

Jamie has demons of his own. Wed to his guitar from the age of thirteen, he plays in bands across the country, living the nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll while fleeing from his family’s horrific loss. In his mid-thirties—addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate—Jamie meets Charles Jacobs again, with profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings.

This rich and disturbing novel spans five decades on its way to the most terrifying conclusion Stephen King has ever written. It’s a masterpiece from King, in the great American tradition of Frank Norris, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe.

Have you read Revival? Make sure to hit us up and let us know what you think in the comments below or over on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!

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