One of pop culture’s newest masters of horror, Mike Flanagan, is about to have his new series, The Mightnight Club, unleashed on Netflix. Drawing inspiration and its title from the 1994 novel by Christopher Pike, this ten-episode series was created by Flanagan and Leah Fong. They also serve as executive producers alongside Trevor Macy, Julia Bicknell, and Christopher Pike. The series debuts on Netflix on October 7, but The Midnight Club isn’t the only piece of classic horror literature on Flanagan’s mind.

Speaking exclusively with Flanagan and producer Trevor Macy via Zoom about The Midnight Club, JoBlo’s Alex Maidy pointed out a Dark Tower Easter egg in the series. After confirming the nod to the Stephen King classic series of novels, Alex asked if there were any chance the duo would adapt King’s epic tale for a series or film. Flanagan replied by saying The Dark Tower is “1000% a dream project.”

While the will is strong, Flanagan also recognizes that The Dark Tower is a “development and rights nightmare.” However, He says they are “going to keep pushing to try and make it happen until someone stops them.”

Set in a world of ominous landscape and macabre menace, The Dark Tower series features one of Stephen King’s most powerful creations—The Gunslinger—a haunting figure who embodies the qualities of the lone hero through the ages, from ancient myth to Western frontier legend. As Roland crosses a desert of damnation in a treacherous world that is a twisted image of our own, he moves ever closer to the Dark Tower of his dreams—and nightmares.

DEADLINE: Speaking about projects based on well-known IP, is there something you have in the works in that area?

FLANAGAN: You’re the first person we’re saying it to, but yes. Predating our deal with Amazon, we acquired the rights to The Dark Tower, which if you know anything about me, you know it has been my Holy Grail of a project for most of my life. We actually have those rights carved out of our Amazon deal, which doesn’t mean that they can’t or won’t get behind it at some point — you don’t know. But that’s something we’ve been developing ourselves and are really passionate about finally getting it up on its feet at some point.

DEADLINE: How far along are you in the development? Mike, you have shared your Dark Tower vision in interviews, so you must have at least a synopsis in mind. Are you planning to pitch the project around town?

FLANAGAN: I wrote a pilot, we view it as a as a series that’s going at least five seasons. And having lived with this project as long as I have, I have an enormous amount of it worked out in my brain. But I have a pilot script I’m thrilled with and a very detailed outline for the first season and a broader outline for the subsequent seasons. I think eventually, if we’re able to get it going, there are some other writers I want to fold into that process whom I’ve worked with before; I think they would be really fabulous for a very small, intimate writers room where we can continue to break it.

I’ll tell you, more than half of my life, I’ve closed my eyes and been able to watch a lot of this play out, I’ve dreamed about this. That first shot which comes right off at the first incredible sentence of the first book, The Gunslinger, I’ve had that image just rattling around in my head since I was an undergrad. It’s going to have to get out of there eventually, I really need to get it out of my head.

The pilot script is one of my favorite things I’ve ever gotten to work on. It’s been surreal working on that. So we’ve been floored and grateful that Stephen King trusts us with such an undertaking, something so precious to him, and we hope to find the right partners to realize it.

DEADLINE: Have you had conversations with Stephen King about The Dark Tower over the years and more recently when you were acquiring the rights? Have you discussed with him your plans for bringing the books to the screen?

FLANAGAN: Absolutely. This happened because I sent him a very, very detailed outline of what I wanted to do with it. And it was in response to that, that he gave us the rights. A project like this, I wouldn’t want to be involved in it at all If we were taking it in a direction that was going to be blasphemous to the Stephen King material, but he’s been very, very supportive and very excited about what we’d like to do with it.

DEADLINE: Initially, more than a decade ago, there were grand plans for a Dark Tower integrated film and TV universe. Is your adaptation strictly a television series?

FLANAGAN: Well, to be honest, the way that I have seen it breaking out is five seasons of television, followed by two stand-alone features. But I think our priority has been trying to get the television side of it going first. We’re not going to put the cart too far ahead of the horse on such a challenging project, but that I think is the perfect way to do it.

DEADLINE: Are you a little bit daunted by the fact that The Dark Tower is considered one of the hardest pieces of literature to be adapted for screen?

FLANAGAN: Oh, of course, we are very aware of that. I think we’ve had good and incremental practice to get there because people said Gerald’s Game was unfilmable; that was daunting. When Doctor Sleep came around, people were saying, oh my god of all the projects to take on, why would you step into the crosshairs there. So I feel like we’ve been gently preparing ourselves for this along the way, but yes, none of it is lost on me.

MACY: If you don’t fell intimidated, you are not doing it right.

FLANAGAN: Yeah, you have to be intimidated by it in order to do it properly. I think that’s absolutely right.

DEADLINE: The Dark Tower MRC pilot was one of the first projects Amazon Studios Head of TV Vernon Sanders worked on after joining the studio. They ultimately passed on it but clearly the company had interest in the IP. Have you spoken with him about potentially pitching your adaptation to them?

FLANAGAN: Oh, sure. They’re very aware of it. We’re just at the very beginning of this new relationship. We were careful to keep it carved out just in case, we would be fairly understanding of any institutional PTSD off of the other attempts they made at adapting it over there. So we wanted to keep that separate. But they’re absolutely aware of it, and if that’s something that they would be interested in, we’ll be thrilled.