During a lively Tribeca Festival masterclass discussion on genre filmmaking, director Mike Flanagan spoke with writer Justina Ireland, who was in the writers’ room for Flanagan’s upcoming Netflix series “The Fall of the House of Usher,” about how he was able to continue making the series after on-set disruption.
In April 2022, Variety reported that Frank Langella, the lead of the series, was recast “following an investigation into alleged misconduct on set.” Bruce Greenwood took over the role, which included reshoots since Langella left midway through production.
Ireland asked Flanagan about the difficulty of being a creative who has to be leader on set, alluding to a difficult person on “Usher” and mentioning that the audience could Google the behind-the-scenes drama if they weren’t in the know.
Flanagan answered the question without naming specific people or incidents, saying: “The management of production is something there is no real training for. Being the adult in the room is a bummer, but I learned early on if I wanted a career I had to balance creativity to people, responsibility to the story and the people you are working with. You swim or drown together.”
The director did clarify that, “The production of ‘Usher’ was rough, but not the roughest I’ve had” — an honor he bestowed to his first series, “The Haunting of Hill House.”
Flanagan also spoke about his dream project, a series adaptation of the Stephen King series “The Dark Tower,” which he first announced in December. He confirmed that he owns the rights to the project.
“We’re on strike but I’m very optimistic,” he said. “We have great partners and I think it’s going to happen.”
Flanagan’s next film project is “The Life of Chuck,” another King adaptation starring Tom Hiddleston and Mark Hamill. His previous two features — 2017’s “Gerald’s Game” and 2019’s “Doctor Sleep” — were also based on King’s work.