CBS picks up Stephen King's Under the Dome

Amblin Television has secured a 13-episode straight-to-series order from CBS for its small screen adaptation of Stephen King's 2009 novel Under the Dome, which tells the story of a small New England town sealed off from the rest of the world by a giant transparent dome of unknown origin. The project was originally in development at Showtime, with Amblin asking for a release in August 2011 in order to shop the series around to other networks.

According to Deadline Neal Baer (Law & Order: SVU) will serve as show-runner on Under the Dome, with Niels Arden Oplev (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) directing the first episode from a script by Brian K. Vaughn (Lost). Vaughn is said to have "kept the general conceit and many of the characters from the new book but also introduced new characters as regulars and tweaked some details and backstory for the existing ones." The series will also ignore the ending to the book, with CBS apparently keen to extend the series to a second season.

Under the Dome will air next year, with King, Baer and Vaughn executive producing the series alongside Stacey Snider, Steven Spielberg, Justin Falvy and Darryl Frank.