J.J. Abrams To Adapt Stephen King's '11/22/63' For TV

by UInterviewApril 29, 2013, 12:00 amNews >

J.J. Abrams will be the executive producer for the TV adaptation of the Stephen King bestseller, 11/22/63, as his Bad Robot production company and Warner Bros. TV have been wrapping up negotiations for the novel's rights, Deadline reported.

King's time-traveling novel follows a teacher who travels back in time in an attempt to derail the assassination of 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy. He reemerges five years prior to Lee Harvey Oswald's murderous shots from the Texas School Book Depository into the late president's motorcade. In addition to showing his efforts to prevent the attempt on the president's life, the series will depict the protagonist adjusting to his new life in the past.

The full description of the bestseller on Amazon is as follows :

"Life can turn on a dime—or stumble into the extraordinary, as it does for Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in a Maine town. While grading essays by his GED students, Jake reads a gruesome, enthralling piece penned by janitor Harry Dunning: fifty years ago, Harry somehow survived his father’s sledgehammer slaughter of his entire family. Jake is blown away . . . but an even more bizarre secret comes to light when Jake’s friend Al, owner of the local diner, enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination. How? By stepping through a portal in the diner’s storeroom, and into the era of Ike and Elvis, of big American cars, sock hops, and cigarette smoke. . . . Finding himself in warmhearted Jodie, Texas, Jake begins a new life. But all turns in the road lead to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald. The course of history is about to be rewritten . . . and become heart-stoppingly suspenseful."

Bad Robot currently produces Person of Interest and Revolution, but has expressed a desire as a company to produce a show on cable TV. It's uncertain as to whether they would adapt 11/22/63 into a miniseries or a standard show.

Another King novel is already headed to the small screen. Under the Dome will debut on CBS this summer. Check out the promo below: