The Stephen King business seems to be a good business to be in for TV networks, as the master’s novel 11/22/63 has just been snapped up by JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot and Hulu for a series.
Deadline reports that the novel, about a man who travels back in time to the day JFK was assassinated, has got a nine-episode series at the network that’s being described as “an event series.” However, they also note that Hulu would be open to further seasons of the show that would deviate from the novel.
The book is the story of “Jake, an unassuming divorced English teacher who stumbles upon a time portal that leads to 9/9/1958 and goes on a quest to try and prevent the assassination of John F Kennedy, which occurred on November 22, 1963. But his mission is threatened by Lee Harvey Oswald, his falling in love and the past itself … ”
As you might expect, Abrams and King are very excited to be working together. Abrams stated that “I’ve been a fan of Stephen King since I was in junior high school. The chance to work with him at all, let alone on a story so compelling, emotional and imaginative, is a dream.”
King is equally enthused to see his novel transformed for TV. “If I ever wrote a book that cries out for long-form, event TV programming, 11/22/63 is it. I’m excited that it’s going to happen, and am looking forward to working with JJ Abrams and the whole Bad Robot team.”
The show will be written by Bridget Carpenter, a veteran of such excellent shows as Dead Like Me, Friday Night Lights and Parenthood, who is currently working on The Red Road with Jason Momoa and Martin Henderson.
The Things They Left Behind is currently in development at CBS under the stewardship of Seth Grahame-Smith and Greg Berlanti, while Under The Dome just finished its second season at the same network. 11/22/63 is of a similar doorstop-length to Under The Dome, so the long-form format would seem to make sense. The choice of show-runner is promising too, so fingers crossed for this one…
You can buy 11/22/63 in paperback for £8.18 at Amazon.co.uk. Keep up with the latest in genre TV with the new issue of SciFiNow.
