Brendan Gleeson and Anton Yelchin to Star in ‘Mr. Mercedes’ Series

Another Stephen King property is heading to the small screen and while I usually prepare myself for a wild ride in quality, the names attached to this project so far have me feeling pretty optimistic.

According to The Hollywood Reporter Audience Network, a network owned by DirecTV, has picked up David E. Kelley’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel “Mr. Mercedes.”  As you might know, David E. Kelley has a had a long and prolific career in television having brought such shows like “Ally McBeal” and “The Crazy Ones” to life over the years.

Actors Brendan Gleeson and Anton Yelchin will star in the series in two major roles.  Here’s how THR breaks down the plot…. But before you read that I feel like I should warn you because I’ve never read “Mr. Mercedes” and the plot description below gives away the killer, so I don’t know how big a spoiler that is.  Anyways, if you don’t mind spoilers here is the description:

Mr. Mercedes centers on a demented killer who taunts a retired police detective with a series of lurid letters and emails, forcing the ex-cop to undertake a private, and potentially felonious, crusade to bring the killer to justice before he can strike again. Gleeson will play Detective Bill Hodges, a retired cop who is driven out of retirement after an old nemesis reappears, while Yelchin will portray Brady Hartsfield, a mentally deranged ice cream truck driver and IT worker for Cyber Patrol (aka Geek Squad) who is secretly the Mercedes Killer.

THR lists the series as being 10-episodes long, but there’s no indication on whether or not this will be stretched out to multiple seasons or if it’ll simply be an event series.  However, given the history of shows based on Stephen King, I wouldn’t be surprised if it got multiple seasons.  Stay tuned as we learn more about this new series.