Stephen King's UNDER THE DOME To Debut On CBS; RUNAWAYS Writer Brian K. Vaughan Attached
We first told you about this adaptation of Stephen King's epic Under The Dome last August, but CBS has now given it a 13-episode straight to series order from producer Steven Spielberg, with writer Brian K. Vaughan attached and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo helmer Niels Arden Ople set to direct.
It's seemingly been stuck in development hell for well over a year, but after Showtime decided not to move ahead with the small screen adaptation of Stephen King's 2009 novel Under The Dome, CBS has now given it a 13-episode order for Summer 2013. It will be produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television with Lost and Runaways writer Brian K. Vaughan is still set to pen the script. Neal Baer (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) will serve as showrunner, while The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo director Niels Arden Oplev is set to helm the first episode. "This is a great novel coming to the television screen with outstanding auspices and in-season production values to create a summer programming event," CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler.
On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.
Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens—town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a selectwoman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing—even murder—to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.