Stephen King's Under The Dome TV Series Given Green Light

Stephen King ’s 2009 novel Under The Dome – about a small New England town that is inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world by an enormous transparent dome – is set to become a 13-part TV series for CBS, to be broadcast in the summer of 2013.

The show has been commissioned straight-to-series, bypassing the usual pilot route. It will be made by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television production company. Comic writer Brian K Vaughan has scripted the adaptation. Niels Arden Oplev – who directed the Swedish version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – will call the shots on the first episode.

In the story, the trapped townsfolk have to work out how to survive while trying to work out what caused the dome and how to make it go away.

CBS and King’s publishers Simon & Schuster will cross-promote the television series and book in advance of the show's summer launch with the April 2013 re-release of trade paperback and electronic editions from its Pocket Books imprint.

"This is a great novel coming to the television screen with outstanding auspices and in-season production values to create a summer programming event," said Nina Tassler, President of CBS Entertainment. "We're excited to transport audiences Under the Dome and into the extraordinary world that Stephen King has imagined."

Lots of online interactivity is planned.

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