If you didn’t much cotton to the ending to Stephen King’s 2009 sci-fi novel “Under The Dome,” don’t fret.
Writer-producer Brian K. Vaughan (“Lost”) may have years to come up with a new ending.
Vaughan told reporters Thursday morning he hopes to keep “Dome” going well beyond the 13 episodes CBS will air this summer -- which seems to imply the mystery of the dome covering the small Maine town of Chester’s Mill may not be solved this summer.
Vaughn says he was working with King when developing the project at Showtime. Maybe we’ll eventually learn the secretive U.S. Department of Scientific Intelligence (aka “The Shop” from “The Stand,” “Firestarter,” “The Tommyknockers” and “The Mist”) is somehow behind The Dome.
Another interesting wrinkle: Vaughn appears to have already written some or all of the TV version of “Dome” when it was in development at Showtime, and before it came to CBS. (So maybe it’ll be more comparable in tone and/or quality to “Homeland” than, say, “NCIS LA”?)
“I think when it came time to pull the trigger,” said Vaughn Thursday, “[Showtime execs] thought it was not a perfect fit for the direction that Showtime is headed. But [Showtime president] David Nevins thought: ‘This is a terrific script. I’m going to call [CBS entertainment president] Nina Tassler and see if it’s a better fit for CBS.’”
The novel “Under The Dome” tells the tale of a small Maine municipality suddenly and mysteriously enclosed by a transparent but inescapable force field.
The series stars Mike Vogel (“Cloverfield”) as army vet Dale Barbara, Dean Norris (Hank Shrader to “Breaking Bad” fans) as evil local car dealer Big Jim Rennie, Rachelle Lefevre (Victoria Sutherland in the “Twilight” movies) as investigative reporter Julia Shumway, Alex Koch as Big Jim Rennie’s piece-of-shit son Junior, Aisha Hinds (she played Ballard’s FBI pal Loomis on “Dollhouse” and Miss Jeanette on seven episodes of “True Blood”) as Los Angeles entertainment attorney Carolyn Hill and Natalie Martinez (“Detroit 1-8-7,” “End of Watch”) as ambitious deputy Linda Everett, Jolene Purdy (“Donnie Darko,” “Glee”) as radio engineer Dodee, Nicholas Strong (“Nashville”) as radio deejay Phil, and Jeff Fahey (“Lost”) as Sheriff Perkins.
Niels Arden Oplev (who directed the original “Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”) helms at least some of the 13-part CBS miniseries
It hits CBS June 24.
