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Can you talk about how you became involved in the TV adaptation of Under
the Dome? I’d actually heard from
a friend that Stephen King namechecks [me in the book]. So I read
the book largely out of my own giant
ego to begin with, but also because
I’m a tremendous Stephen King fan.
As I was reading it, looking for my
own name, I was also falling in love
with the story. I thought it was so
compelling and I loved the world.
When I heard that DreamWorks wanted to use the book as a
launching pad to tell this story as
an ongoing series, not as a miniseries, that’s when I got excited. I
loved the book, but I didn’t want
to just tell it over again and do a
literal adaptation. For a while [the
TV show was developed for] Showtime, and they were great. They
were really supportive of it, and
[then they headed] sort of in the
Homeland direction, and maybe
something that was genre wasn’t a
great fit. But [Showtime president]
David Nevins kindly called CBS
and said, “Hey, maybe you guys
should take a look at this.” And it
came together very quickly at CBS.
There are quite a few Stephen King movie
and TV adaptations out there, and I don’t
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think I’m being too harsh by saying that
not a lot of them are actually top-tier or
do a great job of capturing what people
love about his work. Why do you think that
is? Well, I think any adaptation
is hard. I think it’s always tough
when you jump from one medium
to another, particularly with hor-
I’d actually heard from
a friend that Stephen King
namechecks [me in the book].
So I read the book largely out of
my own giant ego to begin with.”
ror. In a novel, you get to make
that monster in your head, and in
film and TV, there’s no hiding behind your audience’s imagination.
You have to show it, and you definitely lose something.
But at the same time, there
have been adaptations like Stand
by Me, which is exquisite. It just
so perfectly captures what was
great about that book and did
something new with it as well.
I think Stephen King is probably not a huge fan of Kubrick’s
Shining, but I loved that movie
and I loved that book. I can see