Stephen King’s ‘Mr. Mercedes’ Set To Become A TV Series
Fans of horror and thriller writer Stephen King will no doubt be pleased to hear his novel, Mr. Mercedes is set to be a limited series for television. What King describes as his first hard-boiled detective tale is to become a gripping series about the psychopathic killer.
The scriptwriter is David E. Kelley, well known for Ally McBeal, Boston Legal and The Practice, and the director will be Jack Bender (Lost and Under the Dome). Both Kelley and Bender will also work as executive producers along with Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey of Temple Hill Entertainment, as well as Gene Stein, CEO of Sonar Entertainment.
Series based on Stephen King’s ‘Mr. Mercedes’ in development: http://t.co/9C30h1rJgM pic.twitter.com/eaL6qbOuBh
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) January 14, 2015
The gripping story itself focuses on a psychopath who commits mass murder by driving his Mercedes car into a crowd. The second main character in the series is a cop, recently retired, who gets so gripped by the crime he makes it his mission to capture the killer.
Stephen King’s best-selling book, Mr. Mercedes, was published in June by Scribner and is to become the first of a trilogy. Apparently a second novel, Finders Keepers, is set for publication in May this year.
According to Deadline Hollywood, Kelley said it was an amazing opportunity to “adapt a script from material penned by one of the world’s most acclaimed and accomplished authors,” adding that Mr. Mercedes is a “great story that will translate beautifully to the screen if I don’t mess it up.”
As for Stephen King himself, Entertainment Weekly quotes him as saying that he has admired Bender’s work for years. Referring to Bender’s work on Lost and Under the Dome, King said he really caught the suspense element, adding that David Kelley is incredibly gifted and that “he is excited to work with these amazing talents.”
David E. Kelley to adapt Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes as a limited series http://t.co/K5s2gr2bWS pic.twitter.com/Qqw32C9d5P
— JoBlo.com (@joblocom) January 14, 2015
The video below features King speaking about the novel itself and where he got the idea for Mr. Mercedes.
The recent science fiction series Under the Dome, the story of a small U.S. town encased in a mysterious dome, was also adapted from one of King’s novels and started as a mini-series on CBS Television. Due to its popularity, the mini-series was then fluffed out into a fully-fledged science fiction series.
Another recent television series adapted from one of King’s novels is SyFy’s Haven. Expanded from King’s novella The Colorado Kid, this supernatural series tells the tale of a former FBI agent, Audrey Parker, who becomes a cop in the small town of Haven in Maine, assisting what are termed the “troubled” residents in the area. Of interest to note, William Shatner of Star Trek fame is slated to appear in four episodes of the next season of Haven set to air in 2015.
As reported on The Inquisitr in November, the popular author shows no sign of slowing down as Stephen King’s religious-themed novel Revival topped the Publishers Weekly fiction charts.
[Image via George Koroneos / Shutterstock.com]
