Stephen King: ‘The Mist’ Miniseries Gets A Legendary Director

A director for the TV miniseries based on Stephen King’s The Mist has finally been confirmed as Adam Bernstein, and the show’s producers could hardly have chosen a more fitting director to make Stephen King’s The Mist a success.

The news was originally reported by Deadline, and it is good reason for King fans and TV buffs alike to get very excited. After all, Bernstein has an incredible resume to back up his directorial prowess that will let Stephen King’s followers know his next video retelling will be in good hands. Bernstein’s past work has included some episodes of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Californication, Shameless, Bored to Death, Oz, Homicide: Life on the Street, and Entourage.

New post: Adam Bernstein To Direct Pilot Episode For The Mist https://t.co/0eHEUyDfVM

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So far, Bernstein has only signed on to direct the pilot, and he even has a great track record when it comes to helming premier episodes specifically — he also directed the pilots of Fargo, 30 Rock, and Scrubs.

In a 2014 interview about directing the first episode of Fargo, points out Gizmodo, Bernstein said how he loves directing pilots because he gets to set a tone for the whole show.

“There is a certain amount of pressure, but for me that’s the fun part. You get to be in on the ground floor of defining what this world going to look like, what the color palette is going to be, how you’re going to shoot it. It’s always really enjoyable to have the larger share of responsibility for designing what the show is going to be.”

From Bernstein’s words, we can guess that the world Stephen King originally penned in his 1980 short story – and which was adapted to the big screen in 2007 – will be taking on a distinctly Bernstein-esque tone during its 10-episode run.

https://t.co/xtfG04HJb2 review of The Mist potential top10 film on the site, you bet it is! #Horror RT's appreciated pic.twitter.com/MomkMuPqgI

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Nailing down precisely (or even generally) what a Bernstein-esque tone entails is a bit tricky, though. As one can see from Bernstein’s TV credits, his filmic experience is pretty diverse, as 30 Rock and Homicide: Life On the Street do not share much in common in terms of tone.

And not only has Bernstein directed a bevy of very different TV shows, but he is perhaps best known for directing some of the most successful music videos of all time, including the B-52s’ “Love Shack,” Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back,” and the Beastie Boys’ “Hey Ladies.”

Although he may be all over the place in terms of the vibes his projects give off, though, he is most definitely good at his job, a fact evidenced by his 2007 Emmy for 30 Rock and his 2014 Emmy nomination for Fargo. So those who eagerly await the premiere of Stephen King’s The Mist may not know what to expect, but they can go in with confidence they’ll be getting a quality product.

Making the exciting Stephen King-related news even more exciting is the fact that another King-inspired miniseries that was received excellently by both critics and fans, 11.22.63, just wrapped up a few weeks ago. The miniseries, which was produced by King himself along with JJ Abrams and several others, showed that giving Stephen King works the miniseries treatment and, therefore, a much longer running time than a feature film (or even a trilogy) allows for some great storytelling and a very effective show on the whole.

That said, the 134-page Stephen King novella The Mist is based on is much shorter than the 849-page tome that is King’s 11/22/63, and that fact will allow the show’s creators to inject more of their own flavor into the set of 10 one-hour episodes.

As The Inquisitr reported previously, Stephen King’s The Mist miniseries will be exclusive to Spike TV and, although no casting choices have been announced yet, production is scheduled to start this Summer. Viewers could see Stephen King and Adam Bernstein’s tale gracing their screens as early as Winter 2017.

Who would you like to see cast in Stephen King’s The Mist? And how do you think the shorter length of the source material in comparison to 11.22.63 will affect the small-screen adaptation?

[Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images]