Disappointed but not surprised that they're using the Kubrick film as a point of reference. As for King giving the go-ahead, he seems to be giving carte blanch approval to nearly everything nowadays and then say how he really feels afterwards (for example he low-key dissed Under the Dome today on Twitter after defending all the changes when it was out). Although in this case he seems to genuinely like Flanagan as a director based on his past work so we'll see...