J.J. Abrams‘ production company Bad Robot will adapt Stephen King‘s bestselling novel Billy Summers into a limited series. Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz will adapt the novel, which will likely be ten episodes and is expected to be shopped to networks and streaming platforms soon.
The novel focuses on Billy, an ex-army sniper turned killer-for-hire who only kills ‘bad men.’ Billy wants out, but first has to pull off one last hit. Tasked with a hit on a small-time crook, he must live a double life in the local community while waiting for his shot. But Billy soon grows increasingly skeptical of the mobsters who hired him.
This adaptation makes sense as Bad Robot have worked on a number of King adaptations before. They initially adapted 11.22.63 as a Hulu series with James Franco, before working on the two season anthology series Castle Rock based on King’s writing, and recently developed Lisey’s Story for Apple TV+.
With the rate that King adaptations are getting commissioned, production companies might eventually run out of his work to adapt. It was announced a few weeks ago that Blumhouse was working on an adaptation of Later with Lucy Liu set to star.
That joins an almost innumerable number of King projects in the works, which include The Boogeyman, The Breathing Method, The Tommyknockers, Rest Stop, Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, Firestarter, and Salem’s Lot. And that’s just the film adaptations.
There are also TV versions of The Institute, Joyland, The Ten O’Clock People, Revelations, and Sleeping Beauties in the works.
Bad Robot’s track record with King adaptations is pretty good, so fans will likely be excited by yet another collaboration between the author and the production company. Expect plenty of networks and streaming services to be interested too.
Salem’s Lot is expected to be the next screen version of King’s work to arrive, as it’s currently due to be released in September.
#Peace.Love.BillySummers
