Stephen King's 'The Mist' gets TV series pilot order

UPDATE 04/14: Spike has greenlit a 10-episode order set to go into production over the summer for a 2017 debut.

EARLIER: Stephen King’s sci-fi thriller The Mist is getting closer to becoming a TV series.

Spike TV has ordered a pilot based on the horror author’s tale of a group of Maine residents trapped in a grocery store after a mysterious mist full of nasty creatures blankets the town. The 1980 story was previously made into a 2007 film by Frank Darabont and starring Thomas Jane.

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Spike executive Sharon Levy pledged The Mist would be a “compelling series unlike anything else on television.” Writer-producer Christian Torpe (Denmark’s Rita) will serve as executive producer. The Mist will be the first pilot order for a Spike scripted dramatic series since the networked shifted its formerly male-focused brand towards general entertainment.

One challenge for the production would be figuring out how to take King’s trapped-group concept and expand it into an ongoing series. The order comes a couple weeks after Hulu launched its own King tale, the time-travel thriller 11.22.63. Now if only somebody would order a new version of The Stand …