In early 2015, we learned that David E. Kelley had signed on to develop a limited television series based on the Stephen King novel Mr. Mercedes, and now THR is reporting that the project has found a home at AT&T's Audience Network.
The network has given a 10-episode straight-to-series order to the adaptation, which will premiere sometime in 2018 on both DirecTV and AT&T Uverse, and "centers on a demented killer who taunts a retired police detective with a series of lurid letters and emails, forcing the ex-cop to undertake a private, and potentially felonious, crusade to bring the killer to justice before he can strike again." Kelley will write the first episode, serve as the showrunner, and executive produce alongside Jack Bender (Lost, Under the Dome), who will also direct.
Brendan Gleeson has been cast as Detective Bill Hodges, "a retired cop who is driven out of retirement after an old nemesis reappears," while Anton Yelchin will play Brady Hartsfield, "a mentally deranged ice cream truck driver and IT worker for Cyber Patrol (aka Geek Squad) who is secretly the Mercedes Killer."
Published in 2014, Mr. Mercedes is the first volume in a planned trilogy. The second installment, Finders Keepers, hit shelves in June of 2015, while the third, End of Watch, will be released on June 7th.