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Stephen King takes to Twitter to advocate for a more faithful Under the Dome adaptation

By Matthew Jackson
Under the Dome

Stephen King has arguably seen more of his work adapted for the screen than any other writer; sometimes he's even rolled up his sleeves and gotten directly involved as a screenwriter — and, once, as a director. There are dozens of King adaptations, some very good, and some very bad, with every possible level of quality in between.

Sometimes King offers his blessing to various film adaptations, as he just did this week with director Mike Flanagan's take on his sequel to The ShiningDoctor Sleep. Then sometimes King's not quite so happy about what went down, and it turns out that's apparently true of the TV series based on his massive novel Under the Dome.

King took to Twitter on Thursday morning suggesting that streaming giant Netflix revive Under the Dome, but it turns out he only wanted them to revive the idea of adapting his novel, and not continue the CBS series based on the book.

King offered no further context for his remark, but his son, writer Joe Hill (whose series NOS4A2 is airing now on AMC), also chimed in ...

Under the Dome — the story of a town in Maine that is suddenly and inexplicably covered by a transparent barrier and the resulting mysteries that must be solved — is one of King's longest and longest-gestating novels. It was published in 2009, but various parts of the concept date all the way back to 1972. A series based on the novel aired as a summer event on CBS for three seasons between 2013 and 2015. Though writer Brian K. Vaughan (SagaLost) initially developed the series and scripted certain episodes, by the time the series made it to air showrunner Neal Bear was overseeing things. Vaughan left the series after the first season, reportedly amicably, to focus on his comics writing, and King also reportedly had a hand in helping determine the arc of the show going forward after Season 1.

King offered no further context as to exactly why he wants a new adaptation of Under the Dome, but significant character changes were made between book and screen by the time the show aired. Earlier this year, in talking about major changes to Pet Sematary for its new adaptation, King outlined his philosophy about changes to his work.

"I’m really kind of mercenary about all this," he said. "My idea is, 'If it works, it’s golden. If it doesn’t work, you know, Jesus Christ, why did you change it?' I mean, I’ve seen changes in stuff that’s been done to my work where I just throw up my hands and I say, 'Why? Why did you do that? You had a book. You had a blueprint you could’ve gone by.'"