Y : The Last Man and Saga author Brian K. Vaughan is one of the main author of the unexampled CBS show Under the Dome , base on the Stephen King novel of the same name . And last night , we got the first glimpse of some footage , and Vaughan talked about how he aims to take a 1,000 - Thomas Nelson Page novel and twist it into a TV show that could run for year .
There have n’t been any material teasers released yet for Under the Dome , which come to CBS in June — but we saw a four - second sizzle gyrate , in which the composition seemed to be that once a small Maine Ithiel Town gets cut off from the relaxation of the world by a forcefield ( like in the Simpsons Movie ) , some people will uprise to the juncture and become better people — but other the great unwashed will be at their absolute bad .
We catch a muckle of glimpse of Jeff Fahey ( Lawnmower Man ) as the town sheriff , who ’s being screw with royally by Big Jim ( Dean Norris from Breaking Bad ) who becomes a sort of lowly - townsfolk dictator and major asshole . We also saw bit of Julia ( Rachelle Lefevre ) realizing her husband was jockey on her — to which another man responds that no human race in his right thinker would step out on such a beautiful fair sex . There was also some “ young serial killer ” action , as the closing off and bedlam under the dome drive Junior Rennie to go off the rails .
We also catch some glimpse of total chaos — an airplane rip in one-half by the barrier , with flame chunks falling to earth , severed limbs and a truck crashing into the roadblock . There was footage of King himself saying that you ’re only as sick as your secrets — and some people inside Chester ’s Mill are very ill indeed .
So how do you adjust a monolithic book like that into a video show ? Vaughan secernate the audience at the Dome panel that they really open up up the world and made the storey open - over . “ In true Stephen King fashion , ” King arrive at varlet 1,000 of his novel and felt like he was just getting started — but they ca n’t put out book longer than about 1,000 Page . So King would have loved to have told the story of the town under the noodle as days turned into week and week turned into days — and on the TV show , they might get the luck to do that . King ’s manuscript for the novel weighed 19 pounds , and Vaughan joke that he just ask “ the three skilful pound sterling . ”
Vaughan fuck the Word of God , because like a mint of King ’s best work , it takes serious topics like dwindling resources and the nature of democracy , but address them without being preachy — instead it uses a very “ pulpy ” story to research these ideas . “ It ’s a fable of our life , ” added author Neal Baer ( ER ) .
A Brobdingnagian issue on this show is run to be how people deal with running out of supplies — what do you do when you persist out of Tide soap ? How do you deal with food shortages ? “ Do you really need a banker under the dome ? ” asks Baer . “ Farmers , possibly you do . ”
Baer said they separate the first season of the show into thirds , represent by three Fs : 1 ) Faith , “ this ca n’t be substantial , this ca n’t last too long , ” 2 ) Fear , “ Oh my god , what are we going to do , ” and 3 ) Fascism , “ Who ’s go to maintain order ? ” And he said they expend a lot of time haunt about the scientific discipline of the covered stadium — one of the show ’s author is a Pulitzer - winning former reporter , Scott Gold , and he came up with estimation about how in high spirits frequency could get through the dome but low frequencies could n’t . To which Stephen King himself respond , “ You know , you could just make darn up , too . ”
Said film director Jack Bender ( Lost ) , “ This show is really a character show with a scifi element … It ’s really examining how citizenry who are immobilize in an incomprehensible situation , and an impossible situation . ” He say when he read the scripts , he had the same tone as when he saw the Lost pilot — this was something special , with “ impossibly deep ” characters who push back the story . Baer added that there will be a lot of nifty storytelling about mass learning each other ’s secrets and ascertain way to use those secret against each other .
Meanwhile , Dean Norris welcomed getting to play kind of a bad guy after play a nice character in Breaking Bad , and becoming a lilliputian potentate was “ a actual fun thing to lapse my teeth into ” — but at the same time , he did n’t desire to play the character as a high-risk guy . There ’s also a “ poignant and sad ” moment where we learn just how he got the nickname “ Big Jim , ” and it helps you find the humans in this character . “ This show feel large , Shakespearean or Greek or something , ” said Norris .
In the book , Big Jim is “ pretty f — in immorality ” from page one , said Vaughan . But the TV show is extend to take some time getting there , because they need to progress up his character before he goes completely bad .
“ People have an incredible power to adjust , ” said Lefevre , who plays Julia . And the manner we survive “ incredible transformations ” is by being cognizant of who are the people next to you , and part of this show is people becoming more aware of their neighbors . “ multitude are still attracted to each other , they hate each other , they still work off into the wood . ”
After leaving Lost , Vaughan kept see a luck of other television receiver show saying they were decease to amend on Lost or be better than miss , and those show are all gone now . So instead , Vaughan jokes , they ’re just going to slip from Lost as much as they can . Or in reality , they ’ll just call up the lessons of Lost — characters follow first . One difference from Lost ? There wo n’t be a band of flashbacks — we ’ll just get to hump the characters in the here and now , and keep the pressure on them all the metre .
This show is produced by Amblin Entertainment — so it represents the first collaboration between Steven Spielberg , “ the world ’s ultimate optimist , ” and Stephen King , “ the world ’s ultimate pessimist , ” take down Vaughan , “ but they are both Brobdingnagian humanist , and they love their character . So it was fun to join those position . ”
King was part of the approval process for casting on the show , observe Bender , and he come out to the set and hung out . According to Vaughan , King said , “ These day , they mostly just bicycle me out like a toughie ornamentation to promote things , ” but they actually had him in the writers ’ room and arrive his feedback on their dialogue , line by line . King was very supportive of some of the change Vaughan made from the volume .
There will be some shout - outs to other King classics in the boob tube show — but do n’t have a bun in the oven Pennywise the Clown to be lurking in the toilet under Chesters Mill , enounce Vaughan .
And there ’s a weird moment of metaficitonal crossover — in the book , Scarecrow Joe is describe as being a lover of the graphic novel of Brian K. Vaughan . And now Vaughan is adapting the novel for television . “ I ca n’t quite wrap my mind around it , ” said Vaughan . But for the television adaptation of Scarecrow Joe , Vaughan state the worker that his lineament actually should hate Vaughan ’s graphic novel .
Everyone is hoping the show runs for years and years — and finally , Bender says upshot of claustrophobia could become a lot more salient . Vaughan said they ’ve mapped out the whole arc of the show , and they have a final episode envision out — but there are always surprises , and actors can forget or get significant . And you’re able to fall in love with a nonaged worker who ’s only supposed to be in one sequence .
“ I think deeply down , we all want the apocalypse to happen , ” said Vaughan . That direction , “ I wo n’t have to resolve all those emails , aim to body of work , and so on . All I would have to do is survive . In our lounge lizard brains , that ’s the only way we screw how to be . ”
During the Q&A , someone involve about Vaughan ’s fabled Round Table movie playscript — and Vaughan said nothing ’s happening with it . “ It ’s just in the mysterious maturation pit in Hollywood . ” At the same time , King was thinking about Under the Dome back in 1976 , so sometimes things just take time .
BooksSagaStephen KingTelevision
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