'11.22.63' News, Spoilers: Showrunner Says TV Adaptation Is True to the Novel; James Franco Is 'Aspirational Everyman'
"11.22.63," the time-travel thriller that is said to be Hulu's most ambitious original production to date, premiered on Monday, Feb. 15.
The sci-fi/mystery series, which the streaming service launched as a limited series consisting of eight episodes, is an adaptation of internationally renowned author Stephen King's 2011 novel "11/22/63," which tells the story of a time traveler who goes back to the 1960s to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
In Hulu's TV adaptation, "The Interview" actor James Franco plays the part of Jake Epping, an English teacher who is recruited by a mysterious stranger, Al Templeton (Chris Cooper), and is tasked with going back in time to try to stop JFK's assassination.
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Ahough "11.22.63" stays "very true" to the King novel, its showrunner, Bridget Carpenter, says that there are also "enough surprises and deviations" to keep things fresh.
"The book is a wonderful piece of art, but it's also something that's a doorstop," Carpenter told Variety about the 900-page "11/22/63."
The "11.22.63" boss, who is also the series' writer and executive producer, also revealed that the TV adaptation's pacing will be different from that of the book's. "You have to make that dramatic, you have to make it drive like a train. We wanted a speeding train of a story," she said.
Carpenter also talked about the show's leading man and praised Franco's portrayal of Epping, saying, "He is the aspirational everyman."
"My character's not of that time, but he has to fit into that time," Franco told E! News about his character. "He kinda does what we do normally, where we put on costumes and we assume different behaviors to make an audience believe we're of that time, and that's sort of what Jake is doing when he time travels."
"11.22.63" also stars Sarah Gadon as Sadie Dunhill, T.R. Knight as Johnny Clayton, Daniel Webber as Lee Harvey Oswald, Cherry Jones as Marguerite Oswald, Leon Rippy as Harry Dunning, and Josh Duhamel as Frank Dunning.
The next episode of "11.22.63" drops Monday, Feb. 22, on Hulu.
