Demme to shoot Stephen King's JFK novel

DemmeKennedyHelmer Jonathan Demme has optioned the feature privileges to Stephen King's approaching novel "11/22/63" and it is set to create, direct and convey the variation through his Clinica Estetico banner. Book follows Mike Epping, a 35-year-old senior high school British teacher from Maine who travels in time to try and prevent Leader John F. Kennedy's murder. Ilona Herzberg ("Rachel MarriageInch) will produce the sci-fi project, while King will professional produce. Project has yet to land a distributor, though Demme is striving to begin shooting in fall 2012. Demme has already established lots of success getting popular authors' books towards the bigscreen, getting helmed adaptations of Richard Condon's "The Manchurian Candidate," Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and, most particularly, Thomas Harris' "The Silence from the Lamb," that Demme won an Oscar. Demme's last feature film was 2008's arthouse hit "Rachel Marriage,Inch while other recent projects include a set of Neil Youthful concert photos and also the 2007 docu "Jimmy Carter Guy From Flatlands." Ron Howard's adaptation of King's "Dark Tower" series lately fell apart at Universal, though Warner Bros.' adaptation of "The Stand" seems to become warming up. King is repped by CAA. Scribner will release "11/22/63" on November. 8. Demme lately left ICM, his agency of seven years, to sign with WME. Contact Shaun Sneider at shaun.sneider@variety.com