Stephen King’s ‘Big Driver’ to become Lifetime movie

Stephen King is slowly taking over the TV lineup. There are currently two series on the air based on his work, and now there’s an upcoming TV movie based on his novella “Big Driver.”

The TV film adaptation of “Big Driver” will air on Lifetime in fall 2014. It will star Maria Bello, Olympia Dukakis, Joan Jett and Will Harris. Yes, the rocker Joan Jett.

In the film, Bello plays a novelist whose car breaks down on a remote stretch of New England highway. The man who comes to her aid turns out to be a serial killer, who assaults her and leaves her for dead in a drainage pipe. But she’s not dead. And she decides to set out for revenge against the killer, played by Harris.

Director Mikael Salomon is no stranger to King adaptations. He directed the two-part “‘Salem’s Lot” remake on TNT in 2004 and two episodes of the “Nightmares and Dreamscapes” anthology series based on King’s work.

The adaptation is being written by Richard Christian Matheson, who adapted King for the “Nightmares and Dreamscapes” series. Matheson, it should be noted, is the son of famed genre writer Richard Matheson, who King has cited as one of the writers who influenced him.

King’s novella was published part of the collection “Full Dark, No Stars” in 2010.

Production on the film will begin this summer in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

King’s current TV series include “Under the Dome,” which will begin its second season with an episode written by King on June 30. “Haven,” based loosely on his novel “The Colorado Kid,” will return for its fifth season on Syfy in late 2014.

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