Stephen King’s The Eyes of the Dragon scrapped by Hulu

Showrunner Seth Grahame-Smith is apparently hoping to cast Sam Rockwell in a lead role

Stephen King's 'The Eye of the Dragon' is one of his earliest fantasy works

An adaptation of Stephen King’s 1984 fantasy book The Eyes of the Dragon has been scrapped by Hulu.

The series was being lined up as a potential successor to HBO’s hit series Game of Thrones.

Filmmaker and novelist Seth Grahame-Smith, who is writing the first episode and will serve as showrunner, announced on the Kingscast podcast that the project has now been put on hold due to budget concerns.

Grahame-Smith noted that he had hoped to cast Oscar-winner Sam Rockwell in one of the lead roles.

The official description for the series reads: “King Roland's manipulative magician, Flagg, sees his power threatened when Queen Sasha gives birth to Peter, an heir to the throne. When the queen is pregnant with a second son, Flagg gets her midwife to mortally wound the queen and so begins his plot to dispose of the future king.

“Peter brings wine to his father's bed chambers each night and Flagg poisons the potion and frames the son. The magician has meanwhile also been manipulating the younger son, Thomas, showing him secret passages where the boy can spy on his father.”

It continues: “Thomas sees the murder of the king and the frameup of his brother, but is torn when Peter is found guilty and locked in an enormous tower.

“After all with Peter gone, he's king at age 12. He allows Flagg widespread power that corrupts the kingdom. Meanwhile, Peter must attempt an escape to thwart Flagg and win back the throne.”

King is releasing a new crime novel, Later, in 2021. With a tagline that reads, “Only the dead have no secrets”, the book explores themes that will sound familiar to fans of King’s work, such as coming of age, standing up to evil forces, and the loss of innocence.