The prolific and frequently adapted writer has written an episode of CBS’ Under the Dome , but the series still diverges greatly from his original novel. As far as King is concerned, that’s part of the thrill of adaptation.
Stephen King on location in North Carolina during the filming of the second season of Under the Dome.
CBS
While you might be tempted to associate Stephen King with his homicidal creations — telekinetic Carrie White, rabid Cujo, shapeshifting Pennywise the Clown — the monster he most identifies with isn't one of his own.
"I'm kind of like the shark in Jaws," he told BuzzFeed in March, speaking from North Carolina, where filming for the second season of CBS' Under the Dome was underway. "I have to keep moving ahead and eating to live."
Under the Dome, based on King's epic novel of the same name, is set in the small town of Chester's Mill, which becomes inexplicably trapped under a massive, indestructible dome. King wrote the second season premiere, which airs June 30, and had input into the series' next 13-episode arc.
At 66, King is no stranger to adaptation: His novels have gotten the big-screen treatment time and again over the past several decades, from classics like 1976's Carrie and 1980's The Shining to more modern fare like 2007's The Mist and the 2013 adaptation of Carrie. A film adaptation of King's novel Cell, with a screenplay co-written by King, is due next year, and there is talk of new versions of It and The Stand, both of which already had TV miniseries adaptations.
But Under the Dome presents a unique challenge to King, who is more directly involved with the production than he has been with most other adaptations of his work. The way he explained it, that's a mixed blessing.
"It's a responsibility to be directly involved," King said. "I sometimes tell people that the ideal situation is, if the thing is a success you can say, 'It's based on my work.' If the thing is not a success, you can say, 'Well, I didn't have anything to do with it.' You're in great shape either way. But once you're involved, you're putting some of your own ego and some of your own track record, if you will, on the line."
Dean Norris as "Big Jim" Rennie on Under the Dome.
CBS
Fortunately, King has been pleased with the direction Under the Dome has taken as it heads into its second season. Season 1 saw the residents of Chester's Mill struggling to survive life under the dome, as the crisis gave way to looting, shifting power dynamics, and panicked people indulging in their baser urges. That's all in line with the novel, but in terms of pacing and plotting the show has already diverged significantly from the source material, in part by necessity: King's novel is finite, while CBS' "event series" will continue to stretch its plot, ideally, over many seasons.
When he was approached about an adaptation, the idea of expanding Under the Dome was an attractive one to King, who revealed that his novel ended up being more condensed than he'd initially intended.
"When I was writing Under the Dome, my feeling was that it would stretch out over a period of months or even a year, and you would see a kind of reflection of what goes on in the world as resources run out and pollution increases and overpopulation becomes a problem," he said. "All the problems in our daily life, I would reflect in Chester's Mill over a period of time. But the book took over, and it ended up being three or four weeks."
The idea that the novel could have been even more expansive may come as a surprise to readers who made it through Under the Dome's daunting 1,000-plus pages.
"I know it's a very long novel," King continued, "but it covers a very short time. So when they came to me with the TV show and said, 'We want, if the show's a success, to cover months and years,' I thought, Oh man, this is what I wanted to do in the first place!"
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