Steven Spielberg Teaming with Stephen King for Under The Dome TV Series

Posted by on November 20th, 2009   Filed under: Books/Comics, Sci-fi, Thriller, TV

underthedomespielberg

I was lucky enough to get an invite from my friend Mike to go check out a special event with Stephen King last night in Toronto where David Cronenberg was conducting an informal interview with him on stage. The event was to promote King’s new book Under The Dome, but they talked about plenty of other things including King’s upcoming comic book series American Vampire, a screenplay he just wrote for Cell, and the fact that he’s thinking about writing a sequel to The Shining (no, really). Although I can’t really call myself a hardcore Stephen King fan, I have to admit that it’s pretty crazy that he’s written as many books as he has, and he’s still coming up with interesting new material today.

Under The Dome is about all the madness that ensues when an invisible force field suddenly materializes around a small town in Maine, cutting them off from the outside world. Considering its length, it seems more well-suited for adaptation to a TV series and that’s exactly what King is going to do… with the help of Steven Spielberg! Dreamworks TV have picked up the rights to Under The Dome, and will be developing it as an “event series”, probably for cable. I guess that means HBO might still be the ones to broadcast it, as had been previously reported. I don’t know if I’ll get around to reading the book anytime soon, but I think the concept is great and I’m definitely looking forward to this. Anyone out there reading the book right now? Will it make for a great HBO series?



  • Captain N

    Sounds like someone really liked The Simpsons movie.

  • Chris

    Actually I think Stephen King hasn’t come up with an original story since Needful Things.

  • Napalm

    Captain N: Lol took the words right outta my mouth. it might still be interesting though, with Spielberg’s engagement. plus HBO series always have something good to offer.

  • I thought the same thing, but apparently it’s a story he had started writing back in the ’70s, and just came back to recently. Or so he claims!

  • This sounds a bit like a sci-fi comic book from a few years ago called “Girls”. There’s more to the story, but part of the premise is that a huge, invisible spherical force-field surrounds a town, trapping it’s inhabitants inside.

  • jaime

    It’s been done.

  • It’s been dome.

  • Smarter than you guys

    If you nerds are so smart, give us an idea of a completely original idea for a story. Because I bet you can’t. Not saying that is is such an amazingly great book, I haven’t read it. But most every story has been done in some way or another, and the first thing a boring person will say is “it’s been done” or “not an original story.”

  • Clint

    Ah, yeah. The fact that someone can not come up with an original idea does not make this idea original. I could call a little person little even if I’d be even smaller. And then, no one here gave himself the compliment of being “smarter than you guys” except for you.

    Having said that, I’m looking forward to the King/Spielberg collaboration, even if the premise isn’t that original. Hell, people got stranded on an island before Lost, yet that series was fairly entertaining.

  • Diane

    I would love to see this made into a Mini series for regular tv instead of HBO (premium channel) with the economy today why pay more than we already do for programming. If it goes to HBO there will be a lot less exposure to this possibly great film.