Stephen King’s The Institute TV rights sold within 24hrs

The Institute by Stephen King was released on the 10th of September to high acclaim from critics and fellow writers such as GRR Martin. Read an excerpt here if you haven’t already.

It was only a matter of time before someone snatched up the screen rights to the novel- and this time it only took 24 hours! The team who bought the TV rights to The Institute were TV’s David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies) and Jack Bender (Lost) for Spyglass Media Group.

Kelley and Bender are already King fans- they worked together previously on Audience Network’s Mr. Mercedes, an adaptation of Stephen King’s Bill Hodges Trilogy.

Jack Bender will direct the new series of The Institute, and both he and David E. Kelley will executive produce.

The Institute

“In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders murder Luke Ellis’ parents and load him into a black SUV. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents — telekinesis and telepathy — who got to this place the same way Luke did. In this most sinister of institutions, the staff is ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. As each new victim disappears, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from The Institute.”