Stephen King’s latest novel The Institute only hit shelf this week but Spyglass is already working on turning it into a TV series, Variety reports.
Big Little Lies‘ David E Kelly and Lost director Jack Bender are teaming up to develop the series after Spyglass recently won the rights to the book. Kelly will write the series, Bender will direct, and both will serve as executive producers.
This won’t be Kelly or Bender’s first time adapting King’s work: the pair previously worked together on Mr Mercedes, which is an adaptation of King’s Bill Hodges Trilogy. It has recently been renewed for a third season.
If you haven’t yet managed to get your hands on The Institute, here’s the Amazon synopsis for the novel:
Deep in the woods of Maine, there is a dark state facility where kids, abducted from across the United States, are incarcerated. In the Institute they are subjected to a series of tests and procedures meant to combine their exceptional gifts – telepathy, telekinesis – for concentrated effect.
Luke Ellis is the latest recruit. He’s just a regular 12-year-old, except he’s not just smart, he’s super-smart. And he has another gift which the Institute wants to use…
Far away in a small town in South Carolina, former cop Tim Jamieson has taken a job working for the local sheriff. He’s basically just walking the beat. But he’s about to take on the biggest case of his career.
Back in the Institute’s downtrodden playground and corridors where posters advertise ‘just another day in paradise’, Luke, his friend Kalisha and the other kids are in no doubt that they are prisoners, not guests. And there is no hope of escape.
But great events can turn on small hinges and Luke is about to team up with a new, even younger recruit, Avery Dixon, whose ability to read minds is off the scale. While the Institute may want to harness their powers for covert ends, the combined intelligence of Luke and Avery is beyond anything that even those who run the experiments – even the infamous Mrs Sigsby – suspect.
Thrilling, suspenseful, heartbreaking, THE INSTITUTE is a stunning novel of childhood betrayed and hope regained.
The Institute by Stephen King is out now. Get all the latest horror news with every issue of SciFiNow.