Stephen King’s latest novel, The Outsider, just hit book shelves and devices on 22nd May. However, in case you haven’t noticed, the entertainment industry is in the midst of a Kingaissance of sorts, with adaptation-minded studios stumbling over each other to voraciously scoop up anything the man has written, be it a novel, short story, or cocktail napkin on which he wrote directions to a rest stop (that last one’s a joke, but oddly feasible). Consequently, The Outsider is already heading for adaptation pastures, with plans for television series blooming.
Media Rights Capital, the company that produced the 2017 King film adaptation, The Dark Tower, has optioned the still-fresh King best-seller, according to Deadline. The plan is to adapt the novel as a 10-episode limited series. Promisingly, before The Outsider gets shopped to networks and streaming platforms, the pilot will be written by none other than Richard Price, a veteran screenwriter, whose recent works on HBO shows The Deuce and The Night Of were preceded by shows NYC 22 and The Wire, as well as films like Child 44, Shaft (2000 Remake), Ransom, Sea Of Love and The Color Of Money. He also wrote Michael Jackson’s music video for ‘Bad.’ Price will be joined here by executive producers Jack Bender and Marty Bowen, who will represent MRC. King also has the option to executive produce.
The story of The Outsider puts a mind-blowingly monstrous twist on the traditional accused-of-murder fiction (in which King previously delved with Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption). Here, police detective Ralph Anderson fields an investigation in the fictional Oklahoma town of Flint City that upends the local populace when a well-liked local man, Terry Maitland, is arrested for the shockingly malicious murder of an 11-year-old boy. While a mountain of evidence – including DNA and fingerprints – make the case seem open-and-shut, Maitland vehemently swears his innocence; an idea that gains momentum when his alibi – of being out of town at a conference – checks out, leading the investigation to a potentially supernatural turn.
Interestingly, there’s some King Universe crossover potential with this project, at least, as far as the story is concerned. In The Outsider novel, investigator Ralph Anderson is partnered on the Maitland case with Holly Gibney, a character from King’s 2014 novel, Mr. Mercedes, which, of course, has already been adapted as a television series for Audience Network, on which the character was played by Justine Lupe (Madame Secretary, Sneaky Pete). However, that series is the construct of a different production companies, which might complicate a prospective crossover.
For now, The Outsider is just the latest King project to be procured for live-action plans. The Hulu television series, Castle Rock, arrives in July, plus small screen reboots of The Stand (with CBS) and The Dark Tower (with Amazon) are also in the works. Plus, on the movie front, the Pet Sematary remake will once again prove that “dead is betta” when it arrives on 19th April, 2019, and It: Chapter 2 is quickly casting the adult version of the Losers’ Club, heading towards its 6th September, 2019 release. – And there’s certainly a lot more to come.
We’ll keep you updated on The Outsider TV series as things develop!