At WonderCon Saturday, the first footage was shown from Under the Dome, CBS’s upcoming new series based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name. The show is only a month into production so they had no final footage ready, but they did show a reel that incorporated interviews with King and showrunner Brian K. Vaughan (repurposed from a video shown to press in January) with dailies from production - so it's possible these may not be the final takes used, in some cases.
Even in such an early form, the footage looked very cool – showing immediate effects of what happens when an invisible dome suddenly covers an entire town, including a girl collapsing to the ground, a truck smashing into seemingly nothing and, most grisly of all, a bloody, severed arm falling to the ground in front of people’s eyes – just one result of a plane flying into the dome. Natalie Martinez’s Linda is seen looking in confusion at the press gathered on the other side of the dome, who she can’t hear.
We see the first signs of the power wielded by James “Big Jim” Rennie (Breaking Bad’s Dean Norris) as he tells the local sheriff, played by Lost’s Jeff Fahey, “Councilmen have the ability to authorize additional police officers.” When the sheriff asks, “Are you threatening me?”, Jim replies, “No, just reminding you of the lay of the land.”
There were also ominous scenes of Angie (Life Unexpected and The Secret Circle’s Britt Robertson) trapped in some sort of bunker by a guy who seems to have gone off the rails. When she asks, “Have you lost your mind?” he replies, “I’m the only person who understand what’s going on here.”
During the panel that followed, executive producer Neal Baer said Under the Dome will show this town in a situation that will display “What they’re really made of. People’s good hearts and evil hearts may come out.”
Vaughan -- creator of Y the Last Man and Ex Machina and a former Lost writer -- said he was a big fan of King’s work, and his ability to deal with big themes without feeling like he was being too blunt, saying they wanted to make “a super fun, pulpy show with these great characters you care about.”
Baer agreed saying the show would deal with some basic questions like, “Can the sun shine through the dome? Can it rain in the show?”, noting that is somewhat touching upon a theme like climate change, but in a very genre-fueled manner. “We can tackle issues without being preachy.”
He added the characters would face some very basic questions to answer. “What happens when you run out of Tide Soap? Do you really need a banker [in this situation]? Farmers, maybe you do…”
Norris chuckled, “One thing you definitely need is a bad guy!,” elaborating that, “The dome allows certain types of people, Big Jim being one of them, the opportunity to become a bit of a dictator – to exercise their power, because they are cut off from anyone who would check that power.”
Stephen King on the set of Under the Dome
Vaughan and the writers had spoken with King frequently, who’d encouraged them to feel free to make changes from his book and King had also sat in with them for a day to discuss the series. Vaughan said King has been, “Super hands on and really supportive of things we changed from the book that I thought he'd stab me for.” Vaughan said they’d also love to have King write an episode, in the manner Elmore Leonard has written for Justified and George R.R. Martin for Game of Thrones.
Under the Dome will air over thirteen weeks this summer, but Baer stressed it is not intended as a miniseries and they hope to continue for more seasons. As noted, for CBS, it’s “the first launch of this kind of series,” which is more serialized than most of their shows and obviously is not airing during the traditional September to May TV season. Everyone felt the simple question was, “Why can’t you see them during June, July and August?”
Vaughan noted they have an overall plan and “We know ideally exactly how this series would end” down the line. He stressed tough that, as with every TV series, they’d need, “the freedom to change some things along the way,” noting actor availability or casting a guest star who pops and you want to do more with are just some of the things that can occur.
Added Vaughan, “We have a road map, but with the freedom to take side trips that are fun.” As for his idea for the final episode, he said it is not the same as the ending of the book, but he’s spoken to King about it, who endorses the idea.
Director Jack Bender, best known as an executive producer and the most frequent director on Lost, said that what drew him to Under the Dome was, “When I read this script I had same reaction after the Lost pilot - I wanted to spend time with these characters.” Asked how the show will differentiate itself from other post-apocalyptic stories like the Walking Dead, Bender stressed that Under the Dome is not post-apocalyptic, in that the rest of the world is functioning normally while this bizarre scenario is happening to this one town.
Bender remarked that he felt that we were seeing so many “What if the worst happens?” stories now because “the s**t storm” is always on the news these days and it’s how we live now.
Vaughan has the unique distinction of executive producing and showrunner a series based on a book that he himself is mentioned in. In the novel, the character Scarecrow Joe is mentioned as being a fan of “the graphic novels of Brian K Vaughan.” Said Vaughan, “It is totally surreal to be mentioned in a book to standing under the actual dome talking to Joe about that moment.” He joked that he wanted to tell the actor, “In the TV show, your character hates Brian K. Vaughan comics!”
An audience member asked if Under the Dome might have references to other King stories, much like King’s novels do to one another. Vaughan said there would be, causing actress Rachelle Lefevre, who plays Julia, to turn to him and say, “Please don't send us Pennywise, I beg you!”
Under the Dome premieres Monday, June 24 on CBS.
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