Jonathan Demme Adapting Stephen King Book About Time Traveling To Save JFK

While projects based around classic Stephen King properties like The Stand, The Dark Tower, and Carrie have been making gradual moves forward, King's latest catalog entries have stood aside like wallflowers, unable to even catch the attention of a desperate network television miniseries. Until today, that is, when a passing Jonathan Demme noticed King's upcoming 11/22/63 sitting there all alone and decided, what the hell, let's make a movie out this goddammer. Odd that he would pick this 1000-page novel, though, because boy does this thing ever sound like the most bizarre series PBS would ever conceive of to teach kids about history.

If you couldn't tell from the title, 11/22/63 deals with the Kennedy assassination, but only in the most obtuse way imaginable. The story follows an English teacher who discovers a time portal and, figuring killing Hitler is too obvious, sets about stopping President Kennedy's untimely death. And while he's back there, the teacher also decides he might as well meet Elvis and some other celebrities, and meet a nice librarian he can marry while he's at it. Demme, whose last narrative feature was 2008's Rachel Getting Married, will write, direct, and produce. The book itself, meanwhile, will in November reveal the butterfly effect consequences we can expect when one saves JFK. The gaping hole that will leave in Kevin Costner's career, for example. Probably other things, too.