11/22/63: Stephen King's Time Travelling Masterpiece Coming to Hulu

     For the first time in a VERY long time, I am really excited about a new Stephen King adaptaion for film, or at least television in this case.  It's been known for a while that King's amazingly well done time-travel story 11/22/63 was going to arrive on Hulu relatively soon.

James Franco as Jake Epping.

     The official press release synopsis:

"The Hulu Original series 11.22.63 is a thriller in which high school English teacher Jake Epping (James Franco) travels back in time to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy-  but his mission is threatened by Lee Harvey Oswald, falling in love, and the past itself, which doesn’t want to be changed."

     In what Hulu is calling a 9-hour limited-series event, 11/22/63 will begin as a as miniseries, and if it is popular enough it'll continue.  If not, it'll be done.  That is an understandable situation as King's adaptations usually leave a lot to be desired.

     11/22/63, to me, an avid time travel story and movie fanatic, as well as a huge King fan, am looking forward to this opportunity to get to finally see one of his works done right.  What I think this has going for it is the fact that I truly believe this is one of the greatest love stories ever written.  Sure, the main focus and plot is the belief that altering time to change the JFK assassination will make the world a better place, and all the obstacles that get in the way- including time almost actively trying to right itself, fighting to keep things the way they are.  But the subplot that it holds is an absolutely beautiful love story, undeniably pulling the tale together and anchoring it perfectly as a damn amazing novel.  Honestly, I believe that this is one of the best love stories of our generation.
     Entertainment Weekly posted an interview with the show's executive producer Bridgett Carpenter that gives me great hope.  Not only are they pulling in some wonderful talent, they are putting in a huge effort to make it seem not just realistic, but accurate.  They've been using archived recordings and photos and really delving into making this seem like it really belongs in that time.  She describes the reasoning of such production value for this adaptation, "It's a yarn, but it needs to be seeded in the truth and the reality of the time."  That dedication is something to hang our hopes for the series on.

          11/22/63 stars James Franco, Josh Duhamel, Chris Cooper, Cherry Jones, Sarah Gadon, T.R. Knight, Lucy Fry, George MacKay, and Daniel Webber.  The series is brought to us by J.J. Abrams' production company Bad Robot.

     11/22/63 is set to premiere Feb. 15th, 2016.  President's Day.

     Sources [ EW ] [ Collider ]