Mike Flanagan calls Stephen King his childhood hero, credits him for his storytelling passion

Mike Flanagan. Pic/AFP

Filmmaker Mike Flanagan, who is receiving a lot of positive response to his recently released miniseries ‘Carrie', has shared his experience of working with author Stephen King on whose eponymous novel the miniseries is based.

The filmmaker spoke with IANS during the promotions of the series, and shared that the author is his childhood hero.

He told IANS, "It's incredible. Stephen King has been my hero since I was a kid. Like he's very much the reason I want to tell stories. And so for something like this, this is our 4th time working together. The conversations at the very beginning are like, ‘I'm not going to do anything unless Steve wants to do it, I'm not going to risk this relationship at this point for anything'. So the conversations were really exciting".

He further mentioned, "We both had the same feeling at the beginning, which was why do we have to do ‘Carrie'? Like it's been done. It's been done a lot. It's been done perfectly. But I just couldn't stop thinking about the idea. And I really felt like I had a very new way into it that required a lot of changes. And that's where I was scared to have the conversation, because I've never done that with Stephen King's work before. I've always tried to be very faithful. But I said, ‘I think I have a way into Carrie'. It's a lot of changes. It's very different. But here it is".

The series follows the socially isolated teenager as she navigates high school, bullying and the oppressive influence of her mother, Margaret, while discovering her telekinetic abilities. Flanagan updates the story for the social-media era, bringing cyberbullying, online humiliation and modern teenage pressures into the narrative.

The series expands several characters and explores the psychological roots of cruelty, victimhood and revenge more deeply than earlier adaptations. While Brian De Palma's 1976 film remains the iconic version, the series format gives the story considerably more room to explore its characters and themes.

The series is available to stream on Prime Video.

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