Warhammer 40,000 turned out to be a real nightmare for the screenwriter - Mike Flanagan spoke about the main problem of the series
The author of "The Haunting of Hill House" compared working on Warhammer 40,000 to climbing Mount Everest.
Director and screenwriter Mike Flanagan spoke on The Process Unlocked podcast about the difficulties of working on the Warhammer 40,000 series for Amazon. The author of "The Haunting of Hill House" and "Doctor Sleep" admitted that he had never before had to adapt such a massive universe to the screen:
"Right now, I feel like I'm conquering my Everest of adaptations. I'm working on Warhammer — that's already known, so I can say a few things."
The main problem, according to Flanagan, is choosing the right story. Viewers need to be introduced to the world of Warhammer 40,000 without overwhelming them with details, but this is not easy. The universe contains hundreds of books with a huge number of characters and storylines spanning millennia:
"These are full-fledged novels, not short at all. There are a huge number of characters, events span millennia. [...] It was an incredibly difficult adaptation, but very exciting."
For comparison, the screenwriter cited Stephen King's "The Dark Tower," an adaptation of which he has been working on for several years. Despite the scale of the book saga, adapting it is much simpler due to the narrative structure that King himself built, thereby doing a solid part of Flanagan's work for him:
"The story of "The Dark Tower" begins with two people in the desert. It's the simplest start to a story. There's nothing in front of the reader to distract them, and King builds the universe from that point, stone by stone. [...] Seventy percent of my work has already been done by Steve. [...] With Warhammer, it's different."
Flanagan did not specify how far along the work on the script for the Warhammer 40,000 series has progressed. Back in July, Games Workshop reported that he had prepared preliminary plot outlines and was soon to begin writing the script. Thus, the future series already has a foundation, although the details are still being kept secret.
At the same time, the media reported that Flanagan was discussing the possibility of becoming the showrunner and director of the series, but the final agreements are not yet known. Henry Cavill remains an executive producer and is expected to play one of the roles.
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