Like far-reaching ripples made by a stone plopped in a still pond, three shots in Dallas changed the course of America’s history on November 22nd, 1963. The assassination of President Kennedy has been debated and analyzed for decades, but in Stephen King’s novel, 11/22/63, one man has the chance to erase it from history in a time-bending journey, and James Franco will play that man in Hulu’s miniseries adaptation of King’s time traveling epic.
Hulu announced today that James Franco will play the lead role in their upcoming 9-hour miniseries adaptation of King’s 2011 novel, 11/22/63. Franco will portray Jake Epping, a 10th grade English teacher who steps back in time in order to stop the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
“Based upon the best-selling 2011 novel written by King and published by Scribner, 11/22/63 is a thriller in which high school English teacher Jake Epping travels back in time to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. But his mission is threatened by Lee Harvey Oswald, his falling in love and the past itself … which doesn’t want to be changed.”
A Hulu Original series from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions and Warner Bros. Television, 11/22/63 is executive produced by J.J. Abrams, Stephen King, Bridget Carpenter and Bryan Burk, with Carpenter also penning the teleplay off King’s novel. A release date for 11/22/63 has yet to be announced, but we’ll keep Daily Dead readers updated on further announcements. In the meantime, for those unfamiliar with the book, here’s the synopsis:
“Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.
Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.”
