The past week has brought you a lot of exciting news if Stephen King or adaptations of his works. A miniseries based on King’s horror novel 2021 was announced last Tuesday. LaterIt was just reported yesterday that Sophie Thatcher, Chris Messina, and Chris Messina had joined a film-making team based on the short tale. “The Boogeyman.” And as though those stories didn’t provide us enough to anticipate, today we’ve learned that another miniseries is now in the works – one based on Stephen King’s most recent book, Billy Summers.
DeadlineThe news broke and noted that some large names are helping to propel the small screen production. J.J. Abrams is a Stephen King producer with extensive experience. 11.22.63, Castle RockAnd Lisey’s StoryBad Robot has attached a miniseries to which Marshall Herskovitz, Ed Zwick, and Marshall Herskovitz will handle the screenwriting duties. Zwick is perhaps best known for his films like Glory, Legends Of The FallAnd Blood DiamondThe miniseries will be directed by, who is said to be directing between six and ten episodes.
Billy SummersIt was released in August last year and tells the story about the hitman, who is on the brink of retiring. However, before he can quit the game, he is assigned one final job: to kill another trained assassin, who has been taken into custody and knows too much about his employers to be comfortable. In classic “one last job”Fashion is not always as it seems.
The project is currently being sold to streaming and cable services. However, Stephen King has already pitched a name for the role of Billy Summers. When the book came out last year, King was asked about who he would like to see in the role, his response was Jake Gyllenhaal – whom he called “maybe the most underrated actor working right now.”
As noted, J.J. Abrams has had success in the past selling small screen Stephen King adaptations – 11.22.63 and Castle RockHulu’s best original programming, Lisey’s Story being a great addition to the AppleTV+ library – so we’ll just have to wait and see where Billy SummersHow quickly the project develops and where it lands. You can keep track of King projects that aren’t yet in development at our Upcoming Stephen King Movies & TV Guide.