unforum

[Red Walrus]

J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Prods. has struck a deal with the estate of Rod Serling to develop an event series based on an unproduced screenplay by the renowned scribe and "Twilight Zone" host.

"The Stops Along the Way" is described as Serling's final completed work before his death in June 1975 at the age of 50. Bad Robot and Warner Bros. TV secured the rights to the script from Serling's widow, Carol Serling. The property will be shopped to TV outlets as a limited series.

"I'm terribly, wonderfully excited that J.J. is interested and going to do it," Carol Serling told Variety. "It was one of my husband's favorite pieces. He thought it had great potential."

Abrams has been eyeing the property for some time. It's one of several ideas that he's discussed during the past few years with Carol Serling.

SEE ALSO: J.J. Abrams to Develop Popular Videogames Into Features

Rod Serling originally envisioned "Stops Along the Way" as a TV miniseries when he wrote the script in the early 1970s. Carol Serling wouldn't give up any details on the story other than to say it involves "a little bit of fantasy, a little bit of imagination" and that it "takes place over a long period of time." The property was never developed in any formal way during Rod Serling's lifetime with a network or studio.

Abrams has long cited "Twilight Zone," which ran on CBS from 1959-1964 as a seminal influence in his career. Serling famously turned to sci-fi and fantasy with the anthology series in order to comment on social and political issues of the day after encountering advertiser and network interference with his other works.


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I have to wonder bout this one....Twilight Zone starts with stars too, is famously in black and white and has a voice over. It's about a time traveler so it could fit in to what we seen in Stranger teaser. Seems to be too quick though since rights to script was acquired...but it may be a long viral campaign.

[netsua98]

Ya what you hear may just verify what one person said that there is a book coming out October 29th called "S" and I am almost 100% sure the S stands for

[dontlookbehindyou]

This will be a gritty, supernatural pirate movie based loosely on Dirk Chivers. The man at the end of the sequence is none other than Captain Sawbridge (one of his tormentors on the island), his lips sewn shut with a sailor's needle.
Read the Dirk Chivers wiki page:
"According to popular lore one of the captured sailors, a Captain Sawbridge, was said to have had his lips sewn shut with a sail needle in response to his constant complaining."

From a comment on youtube
now this sounds like the most plausible one, but I wonder why we have not heard anything about it. still hoping for bioshock

[Adm_BlackCat]

The novel "S. A Novel" is supposed to be some grand transmedia story.

[danteIL]

Well, this points out that the font in that "The first clue to the mystery of S." card looks very much like the font at 0:55 in the YouTube video.

It seems that is viral marketing for that book, which sounds like a transmedia kind of project....

[Red Walrus]

[zbeeblebrox]

They'd be behind anything done by JJ. And the book/whatever is being co-written by him, so there's that. Without any clues leading us anywhere, though, this isn't super interesting to me until there's a better sense of what it's about.

[Adm_BlackCat]

According to Mulholland Books Bad Robot will be promoting the book leading up to and at publication time.

[thebruce]

Nice find, Adm_Blackcat; that seems pretty incontrovertible

[degravedi]

J.J. Abrams is also in talks to pick up the rights to Stephen King's 11/22/63 -- about a time traveler who attempts to save JFK. But the subject matter doesn't seem to fit, and it doesn't seem that the deal has even been finalized, so it's doubtful that marketing has started already for that one.

Although it could possibly be for S., I'm still going to place my bet on the adaptation of Rod Serling's "The Stops Along the Way." Abrams likes to do homages to earlier media and "The Stranger" really gives off that "Twilight Zone" vibe (star field, black & white, somber voice over, grandiose language, shocking imagery). The theme of time travel seems to fit as well.

[Leyton Stone]

[degravedi]

Had been looking for this since my previous post, visited too many pages and couldn't find the right one. The only thing I could actually find about "The Stops Along the Way". Has anyone been able to find any potential storyline to "S."?

[Tenshi Akui]

[Sam G]

[degravedi]