CBS is going into business with Stephen King and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment as part of its scripted push for summer 2013.
The network has ordered straight to series an adaptation of King's 2009 best-seller Under the Dome, scheduling the 13-episode effort for summer 2013, where it will join the recently revived second season of Poppy Montgomery starrer Unforgettable.
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CBS Television Studios will produce the series in association with Spielberg's Amblin Television. Neal Baer (A Gifted Man, Law & Order: SVU), King, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank, Stacey Snider and comic scribe Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man, Lost), who penned the television adaptation, will serve as executive producers. Director Niels Arden Oplev (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Unforgettable) will direct the first episode. Under the Dome was initially developed for CBS corporate sibling Showtime, with the project first announced in August 2011.
Based on the book about locals at a small New England town that is suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an enormous transparent dome, its residents must deal with surviving the post-apocalyptic conditions while searching for answers to what the barrier is, where it came from and when -- and if -- it will go away.
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"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 said in announcing the news. "We’re excited to transport audiences Under the Dome and into the extraordinary world that Stephen King has imagined."
CBS and book publisher Simon & Schuster will cross-promote the television series and book in advance of the series' summer launch with the April re-release of the trade paperback and electronic editions of the effort. The network will also launch the series with a multiplatform window, with each installment available shortly after its original broadcast. CBS Television Distribution will handle domestic distribution, with CBS Studios International handling worldwide efforts.
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The move to run the big swing series comes after CBS has struggled to keep the lights on during the summer with unscripted series including Big Brother, dating effort 3 and Dogs in the City, the latter two of which failed to catch on at the network.
Under the Dome will join Unforgettable on CBS' summer slate as the network continues to bulk up with scripted programming after such reality efforts as 3 and Dogs tanked. The network revived the Montgomery drama, about a female detective who remembers everything except the day her sister was murdered, in June -- two months after canceling the freshman effort -- with a truncated 13-episode order. The series from Ed Redlich, Carl Beverly and Sarah Timberman had been a steady performer at 10 p.m. Tuesdays, averaging 12.1 million viewers and a 2.5 rating in the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic.
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This marks the latest pairing for King -- who ranks No. 1 on THR's inaugural Power Authors list -- with Spielberg, who previously teamed on The Talisman.
King is repped by Paradigm and Gang Tyre; Baer is with Paradigm and Gendler & Kelly; Vaughan is with Verve Talent and Literary Agency; Oplev is with ICM Partners and Curtis Brown Group.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit
