Almost a year to the day, it was announced that J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot would be reuniting with Stephen King for another TV series adaptation of the author’s works, his-then latest bestseller Billy Summers, but now comes word that the project is being retooled as a feature film with Warner Bros. Pictures.
Billy Summers follows a former U.S. Marine Corps sniper turned killer-for-hire, who is offered one last lucrative payday before retirement. The Last Samurai’s Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz had been adapting the book for the small screen, with Zwick set to direct the majority of episodes. Its understood that the duo will pen the script for the film, although the directing situation remains unclear and Abrams himself is a potential candidate.
Abrams and King remain attached as executive producers, with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way set to produce the film. It becomes the second movie that Abrams and Bad Robot have in active development at Warner Bros. alongside writer Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Black Superman project, which – for now – has survived the DC Studios purge.
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Should it make it to the screen, Billy Summers will become Bad Robot’s first movie adaptation of one of King’s works, although the studio and author have worked together extensively in the past on the TV projects 11.22.63, Castle Rock, and Lisey’s Story.
Via THR