Stephen King’s "Billy Summers" Movie in Works

Warner Bros. has acquired the rights to Stephen King’s bestselling novel "Billy Summers".

The novel is a crime genre published in August 2021. It centers around Billy, an ex-army sniper turned hitman who only kills bad guys. Billy wants out, but first, there is one last hit. The target is Joel Allen, a small-time crook.

The assassin must live a double life in the local community while waiting for his shot but soon grows skeptical of the mobsters who hired him.

While in development, the project will be produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way. 

Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz are writing the screenplay. If this comes out great, it could be a project for Abrams to direct with DiCaprio playing the title character.

The project was initially set to be developed as a ten-episode limited series and shopped around to cable networks and streamers, but it was decided that Billy Summers would work better as a feature.

This will be Bad Robot’s latest adaptation with King, after the series "Lisey’s Story", "Castle Rock", and "11.22.63".