Let me start by saying I am a die-hard Stephen King fan so any new projects based on his works is exciting for me. I mean, I even saw SLEEPWALKERS in a first-run theater and that movie was hot dog shit. But, UNDER THE DOME is one of his best novels in a while.
The adaptation of the massive novel has been in development over at Showtime for over a year. While it will begin airing as a 13 episode series next Summer, it will be on network television and not premium cable. Vulture reports that Showtime decided the plot was not “Showtime-y” enough and it was passed to their sister network.
Plot: On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day, a small town is suddenly and inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and rain down flaming wreckage. A gardener’s hand is severed as the dome descends. Cars explode on impact. Families are separated and panic mounts. No one can fathom what the barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away. Now a few intrepid citizens, led by an Iraq vet turned short-order cook, face down a ruthless politician dead set on seizing the reins of power under the dome. But their main adversary is the dome itself. Because time isn’t just running short. It’s running out.
Now, you may say that sounds an awful lot like THE SIMPSONS MOVIE, but King began working on UNDER THE DOME back in the late 1970s as a cannibal novel. It is a vast and epic series that spans over 1000 pages. It definitely has potential for a limited series, maybe not a multi-year one.
The pilot for UNDER THE DOME is being written by Brian K Vaughn (LOST) and directed by Niels Arden Oplev (The Noomi Rapace version of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO).
While I don’t want any shows on CBS outside of ELEMENTARY, I will have to tune into the Old Person Network when UNDER THE DOME airs next year.