Steven Plus Stephen: Dreamworks Options the Rights to Under the Dome

While there might be a hilarious buddy sitcom in here somewhere, Steven Spielberg and Stephen King, cinematic and literary savants respectively, are teaming up to produce a television cable miniseries, according to Variety, based on King’s recent book, Under the Dome, which is about an enigmatic force field that descends on a small Maine town. The plot synopsis might sound like Stephen King’s lamp monster, in which he can literally take any concept and turn it into a horror story, but critics are hailing it as a return to form for the prolific author.

On the other hand, Spielberg has been going strong in his old age, as if he’s on some cinematic Viagra, but he will only probably be involved in so much that Dreamworks is producing it, so it’s not like some mythical matchup, where Superman and Batman team up together, with King writing and Spielberg directing. Instead, Spielberg will probably have limited creative control, with only the powers to nudge, an ancillary influence, while King will probably not be writing the scripts (King is more comfortable with literature anyway). King adaptations have been a mixed bag, and while this project might be interesting, it’s still a long ways off.