Stephen King's 11/22/63 Coming to Hulu As An Event Series

Hulu, J.J. Abrams's Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television today announced a deal to produce [...]

Hulu, J.J. Abrams's Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television today announced a deal to produce Stephen King's time-travel suspense novel 11/22/63 as an event miniseries for Hulu.

King, whose equally massive Under the Dome is now in its second season as a summer replacement series on CBS, currently has a number of projects in development at the feature film level as well, including The Stand and It. A TV/online/film hybrid based on his epic The Dark Tower series is stuck in development hell.

Based upon the best-selling 2011 novel written by King and published by Scribner, 11/22/63 is a thriller in which high school English teacher Jake Epping travels back in time to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. But his mission is threatened by Lee Harvey Oswald, his falling in love and the past itself … which doesn't want to be changed.

11/22/63 has received a direct-to-series order from Hulu as a nine-hour event, and the project marks the first original programming collaboration between Hulu and WBTV, who recently inked a major digital content deal with Machinima to produce animated Justice League material with Bruce Timm. 

"If I ever wrote a book that cries out for long-form, event TV programming, 11/22/63 is it," said King. "I'm excited that it's going to happen, and am looking forward to working with J.J. Abrams and the whole Bad Robot team."

"I've been a fan of Stephen King since I was in junior high school," Abrams said. "The chance to work with him at all, let alone on a story so compelling, emotional and imaginative, is a dream. We are thrilled to be working with Hulu on this very special project."

King and Abrams raised some eyebrows this summer, leading fans to speculate about whether they might be collaborating when Abrams's ALS Ice Bucket Challenge video featured a challenge to King to follow his lead.

J.J. Abrams, Stephen King, Bridget Carpenter and Bryan Burk are executive producers of 11/22/63. Carpenter will write the teleplay, based on the novel by King. Bad Robot's Kathy Lingg is co-executive producer, and Athena Wickham is producer. Hulu will be the U.S. home for 11/22/63, and Warner Bros. Worldwide Television Distribution will distribute 11/22/63 globally.

11/22/63 was named one of the 10 best books of 2011 by The New York Times, named one of 10 books we loved reading in 2011 by USA Today and honored as an example of notable fiction of 2011 by The Washington Post.

"Stephen King is one of my literary heroes. Creating this miniseries from his extraordinary book is a dream come true," Carpenter said. "My dad, a lifelong Stephen King fanatic, still cannot believe it."

King's works have been adapted for theatrical motion pictures and television more than 50 times, including projects such as Carrie, The Green Mile, Maximum Overdrive (which he directed himself), Misery, The Mist, Pet Sematary, The Shawshank Redemption, The Shining and Stand By Me. King is also currently an executive producer on Under the Dome.

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