Stephen King is the master of horror, and as such, it seems like there's always some new adaptation of one of his books in the works. King has such a wide range of stories to choose from that most people have experienced and liked at least one of his works, and he has a very dedicated fanbase of people who really love everything he has put out. He's kind of a guaranteed jackpot for studios at this point, because most things he touches are going to get at least a decent amount of attention and probably make a lot of money, especially if they also happen to be well-made.
A new King adaptation is currently in the works, with a movie based on the book Billy Summers currently in development with J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot and Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way producing it. The adaptation was originally supposed to be a 10-episode series, but the decision was made that the story would work better as a feature-length film. Billy Summers will be joining the lineup of classic King adaptations like Misery, The Shining, and It, but will it be able to measure up to their success? Billy Summers is a departure from King's normal fare in a lot of ways, so it will be interesting to see how this new entry fits in line with the other famous King adaptations.
What Is Billy Summers About?
Published in 2021, Billy Summers is a bestselling crime thriller that follows a hitman who is looking to retire, and has to take on a final (and highly lucrative) job in order to give himself a financial safety net. The job leads to him staying in a quiet town where he poses as a writer, and he sets up an office with a direct view of where hitman Joel Allen will be facing trial for shooting two men during a poker game. Allen has committed enough murders that there are some mobsters who worry that he'll rat out some of his former employers in order to lessen his sentence. Summers begins to become more and more suspicious of the mobsters who've hired him, which he's proven right about when everything starts to go wrong after he completes his mission.
Billy Summers is a former marine sniper, and he has an unusual moral code for a hitman, as he only kills those who he considers to be "bad people". That code gets called into question with this final job, and his cover story of being a freelance author also starts to become more complicated as he gets more and more invested in his story and his prose, and the details of his job and writing start to come together.
Is Billy Summers A Horror Story?
Unlike most of King's past work, Billy Summers does not include any sort of supernatural horror elements in its story. Instead, King has opted for more of a noir crime thriller, attempting a genre that is outside of his normal scope. Critics have even referred to it as one of his best works in years, so it seems that the change was a welcome and fresh one. The novel is a twisting, turning story that grapples with ethics and leans into King's signature brand of heightened realism, even without the typical supernatural fare. Summers himself is an interesting protagonist to follow, as he struggles through his moral questions and spends his time trying to write his life story, which involves some slightly harrowing events from his past.
Who Is Adapting Billy Summers?
The Billy Summers adaptation is being made in conjunction between two production companies - J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot and Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way. Bad Robot is no stranger to Stephen King's work, as they've helmed a few adaptations of his in the past. They made a Lisey's Story miniseries, as well as a miniseries based on King's time-travel novel 11.22.63. Bad Robot also made the Hulu original seriesCastle Rock, which is inspired by characters and settings from King's work. Writer and producer of The Last Samurai, Ed Zwick, and his fellow Thirtysomething producer Marshall Herskovitz will be writing the script for the film. So far, there's no word on any casting, but the involvement of Leonardo DiCaprio's production company could signal possible participation from the famous actor.