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Stephen King’s The Jaunt being developed as a TV series

April 18th, 2021 by Marc Comments

Interesting bit of news here as it seems another one of Stephen King’s work of sheer terror is set for the screen.

This time it’s his sci-fi horror story, The Jaunt, from King’s 1981 collection Skeleton Crew, is the tale of a futuristic form of travel that transports people instantaneously around the universe where we have now colonies everywhere. However, in a physics (and logic) defining plot twist, travelers must take a special type of sedation because, while the body travels immediately, the consciousness can be lost in space and time and must be shut down before travel to stop this from happening.

The original King story was a short tale that focused on a young boy traveling with his family, however, the story hints at the horrors that came from the technology’s original development, with people going insane without the sedation as their minds basically lived eons outside their bodies.

It’s my bet the TV series would delve into this as the original story would be a one-episode adventure at best.

The story was originally set as a movie to be helmed by IT’s Andy Muschietti (here) but is now being developed as a series for MRC by Fear the Walking Dead’s Dave Erickson.

Elise Henderson, President of MRC Television, said in a statement: “We’ve long admired Dave’s visionary creative work and are thrilled to welcome him to MRC. A true master of his craft, he’s the ideal partner to build upon the work of Stephen King, and create and develop more originals as the studio continues to expand.”

The Jaunt was published in 1981 and became part of the Skeleton Crew collection in 1985. Wikipedia explains, “The story takes place early in the 24th century, when the technology for teleportation, referred to as “Jaunting”, is commonplace, allowing for instantaneous transportation across enormous distances, even to other planets in the solar system.

“The key is that travelers must be under anesthesia for the short journey, or terrible things happen to the mind of those being jaunted around the solar system. Time stands still and one’s brain implodes with too much time to think in an absence of external stimulation. Bad things happen.”

Source: Deadline

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….