Stephen King's sci-fi tale 'The Jaunt' coming to TV from Fear the Walking Dead co-creator

Author Stephen King's works have long been making the jump from the page to television or film, all the way from his bestselling novels like It, The Shining, and The Stand, to just as beloved novellas like The Body (AKA Stand By Me) and The Shawshank Redemption — even inspiring a King-adjacent universe of its own, in Hulu's now-cancelled Castle Rock.

Now, Deadline is reporting that another tale is joining that list, with Fear The Walking Dead co-creator Dave Erickson adapting a King short story titled, "The Jaunt" into a TV series for MRC Television. 

Originally written for The Twilight Zone Magazine in 1981 but now available in King's short story collection The Skeleton Key, "The Jaunt" tells the story of a future where teleportation technology has been developed, which the story derives its name from, as humankind starts "jaunt-ing" around the solar system, slowly colonising other planets. The story itself revolves around a man named Mark Oates, who's preparing his children for their trip from Schenectady, New York to Mars, by telling them about the history of how this form of travel even came to be — and how it can only be done while a person is unconscious as the process either kills people or drives them insane. 

Erickson will create and develop the show, which he will also serve as showrunner on, writing or supervising other writers. It's part of an overall deal with MRC TV, in which Erickson, who served as executive producer for the first three seasons of FTW will exclusively develop content for the studio. 

This is just the latest King adaptation to be announced in recent weeks, with Scott Pilgrim director Edgar Wright having reportedly signed on to adapt his novel The Running Man (written and published under his pseudonym Richard Bachman), and Apple TV+ getting set to release their J.J. Abrams-produced adaptation of Lisey's Story, a novel King has claimed is his favorite, later this summer. Meanwhile CBS All Access' The Stand miniseries just wrapped earlier this month, featuring a new ending from the king of horror himself.

No release date has been set for the project.