Adapting thousands of years of lore and hundreds of novels presents a daunting challenge for the filmmaker

Mike Flanagan has spent years bringing some of horror's most beloved stories to the screen, from Stephen King's Doctor Sleep to Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House. His latest King adaptation, Carrie, has earned rave reviews and is dominating streaming on Prime Video, but the filmmaker's next major undertaking might be his most daunting yet: bringing the sprawling science-fiction universe of Warhammer 40,000 to live action.

Speaking on The Process Unlocked podcast, Flanagan described the Amazon project, which he's developing alongside star and executive producer Henry Cavill, as feeling like he's “climbing my adaptation Everest.”

The challenge, he explained, is figuring out where to begin with a franchise that has accumulated decades of lore, hundreds of novels and thousands of years of fictional history, pointing to the franchise's enormous cast and sprawling timeline.

“These are novel lengths. These are not small. But there are so many characters. It takes place over so many thousands of years. There's so much there,” he said. “The challenge is how do you get in? That's really a brutally difficult adaptation, but it's been so fun for it.”

Amazon's live-action adaptation is being developed with Cavill, a longtime fan of the tabletop franchise, attached to star and executive produce. Games Workshop confirmed in a July financial report that initial outlines had been completed and Flanagan was expected to move on to writing scripts. The company has cautioned that its screen adaptations will take years to bring to market, and neither a release date nor specific storylines for the live-action series have been announced.

Source link