JJ Abrams Turning Rod Serling’s Final Script Into A TV Miniseries
Submitted for your approval.
This article is more than 2 years old
Submitted for your approval: an unproduced script penned by Rod Serling, the legendary and massively talented creator of The Twilight Zone. His final script, in fact, a mysterious, unproduced tale called The Stops Along the Way. Now, nearly 40 years after Serling’s death in 1975, the script is being developed as a TV series by one of the most powerful and divisive talents of the modern pop-culture landscape, J.J. Abrams.
Deadline reports that Abrams is teaming with Warner Bros. TV to turn The Stops Along the Way into an “event limited series,” which is a fancy way of saying “miniseries.” So think along the lines of the upcoming Under the Dome adaptation set to premiere on CBS later this month. Serling actually wrote The Stops as a feature film screenplay, so presumably Abrams and/or whoever is hired to adapt it will expand the premise to fit the longer format.
There are no hints yet as to what the story is about, but Serling referenced it in his final interview on March 4, 1975. Just four months before his death, he described it simply as “a lovely script.” (It’s worth noting that the transcript of that interview lists it as “The Stop Along the Way,” singular, whereas Deadline’s story says “The Stops…” It’s unclear if the difference is intentional or just a typo.)
Serling’s most iconic work, The Twilight Zone, is currently being developed as two different projects. There’s a movie version, said to involve a single time travel storyline, rather than an anthology of stories like the 1983 film. The more interesting of the two is a TV series in the same vein as the original, being developed under the auspices of Bryan Singer. Whether either will eventually make it across the finish line remains to be seen, but we can now add The Stops Along the Way to the list of Serling-related projects we here at GFR will be keeping a close eye on.
