The previously announced limited series adaptation of Stephen King’s Billy Summers is now a feature film and it may have found its director and star. Deadline reports that the series became a film after some development and shopping around to cable/streamers, though it’s unclear if the two things are related as a result of minimal interest on the TV side. J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way are set to produce the film, and according to the trade both the Star Wars: The Force Awakens director and the Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood star could make it their next project if all things go well in the development stage.
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Should Abrams sign on to direct it will be his first movie since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, while DiCaprio is currently waiting on his next collaboration with Martin Scorsese, . The pair have previously never worked together, but the movie would become the latest King adaptation from Abrams’ company, which previously produced three other TV shows in the past including was 11.22.63, the limited series adaptation of King’s novel starring James Franco that was released on Hulu; the anthology series Castle Rock which remixed multiple King tales into an all-new narrative; and the Apple TV+ mini-series of Lisey’s Story, all the episodes of which King himself wrote.
Released in August of 2021, the official description for Billy Summers from King’s website reads as follows:
“Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong? How about everything.”
“This spectacular can’t-put-it-down novel is part war story, part love letter to small town America and the people who live there, and it features one of the most compelling and surprising duos in King fiction, who set out to avenge the crimes of an extraordinarily evil man. It’s about love, luck, fate, and a complex hero with one last shot at redemption.”
Who do you want to see take on the role of Billy Summers? Sound off in the comments below.
