‘Later’: Lucy Liu to Lead Blumhouse’s TV Adaption of Stephen King Novel!!

Stephen King is giving another on-screen makeover to one of his bestselling spooky novels. Deadline reports that the unstoppable scream machine that is Blumhouse Television has picked up the rights to the author’s 2021 novel, Later, and plans to bring Lucy Liu in to star in the new series.

With a pilot script penned by series creator Raelle Tucker, Later will follow the story of a literary agency owner named Tia. A single mother to her son Jamie, Tia’s financial security and professional world begins to crumble when her fan favorite writer client unexpectedly passes away. The author was on the cusp of turning in their latest piece, which would have surely saved Tia’s business and brought stability back to the single mother. Luckily for Tia, Jamie has the ability to communicate with the dead.

With this supernatural talent in hand, Jamie sets out to contact the deceased author who tells Tia how to finish their novel. Things seem to be on the up and up for the literary agent, who publishes the novel and pulls herself back from financial collapse just in time. But, as with all positives, there are also negatives. When Tia’s girlfriend, who is a police detective, discovers that Jamie has this unnatural ability, she pushes him to use his powers more and more which in turn, leads the boy down a gloomy path as he gets more intertwined with the world of the dead.

King is no stranger to having his work translated for the screen. From Carrie to It to Pet Sematary, the author has had his works made and remade onscreen for over forty years. He’s currently in production on a separate piece with Jason Blum for Netflix, based on his short story Mr. Harrigan’s Phone. It’s hard to say who is a bigger fan of whom — in a statement released for the announcement of Later, King said, “I’ve wanted to work with Jason Blum for years, and now we have TWO projects together. Go, me!”Echoing King’s enthusiastic, thankful sentiment, Blum said, “I’ve wanted to work with Stephen King since before I was born, which sounds impossible until you remember that it’s Stephen King.”

On the creative end, Tucker is no stranger to crafting well-told, bone chilling stories. She earned an Emmy nomination for her time working on HBO’s beloved series True Blood, and also holds writing credits on shows including Netflix’s Jessica Jones and The CW’s Supernatural. Meanwhile, two time Screen Actors Guild Award winner Liu has had a long spanning career in television and film. With a background in action packed features such as Kill Bill: Volume 1 and The Man with the Iron Fists, as well as TV shows including her role in CBS’ crime series Elementary, she’ll fit perfectly into the role of Tia.