Rod Serling was a visionary in storytelling. He was responsible both for the screenplay of the first ‘Planet of the Apes’ as well as ‘The Twilight Zone‘ series which is a staple of science fiction television that has withstood the tests of time. When he passed from our world into hopefully one of the many he has envisioned in his mind in 1975. he left us all his many realms of imagination to play in.
However, he had one idea left that the world has never seen, ‘The Stops Along the Way’. Nearly 40 years after his death, we science fiction fans everywhere are finally going to be able to see the story based off his final screenplay.
We’ve just found out that J.J. Abrams and his studio Bad Robot production company have obtained the rights from Serling’s widow, Carol Serling, to develop a limited mini series of ‘The Stops Along the Way’. Love him or hate him, J.J. Abrams has become one of the current generation of leading science fiction producers on both the big and small screen.
In an interview with Variety, Carol Serling said of the acquisition:
“I’m terribly, wonderfully excited that J.J. is interested and going to do it. [The Stops Along the Way] was one of my husband’s favorite pieces. He thought it had great potential.”
It’ll actually be interesting to see what he does with this as he’s primarily moved to the big screen these days and hasn’t written anything for the small screen since 2010. It’ll also be interesting to see how he fits this in with the third Star Trek film and the upcoming Star Wars trilogy that he’s in charge of.
In his last interview before he died, Serling was asked it there was a project that he held close to his heart. His response:
“I just wrote The Stops Along the Way, which is, I think, a lovely script.”
While Serling didn’t give much more about the story, his widow did give some insight about the screenplay saying that the plot involves “a little bit of fantasy, a little bit of imagination” and that it “takes place over a long period of time.”
Whatever it will be about, it was written by one of the last generation’s science fiction gurus and will be produced by one of this generation’s. It has work of storytelling art plastered all over it and I cannot wait to see what is in store for us!
Do you think J.J. is up to turning such a classic writer’s story into something for the small screen? Or are you worried that his current style of special effects wouldn’t mesh well with it?
Source: The Hollywood Reporter