"The President Is Missing" will become a series on Showtime after former President Bill Clinton and blockbuster novelist James Patterson chose the network to turn their upcoming novel into a television show.
The novel, which will be released in 2018, fictionalizes a sitting U.S. president’s disappearance and relies on details that could only come from someone who held the office, according to Entertainment Weekly. It is Clinton’s first novel.
The novel will be the first time an American President has written or even collaborated on a thriller.
Patterson has had many of his novels adapted for television or movies and holds the record for a single author with the most No. 1 New York Times best-sellers.
Many networks and studios wanted the rights to the project, including some that would have turned it into a movie or mini-series rather than an ongoing series, EW reported. Clinton and Patterson met with 16 different entities in Hollywood before making their decision.
“Bringing 'The President is Missing' to Showtime is a coup of the highest order,” Showtime President and CEO David Nevins said, EW reported. “The pairing of Predient Clinton with fiction’s most gripping storyteller promises a kinetic experience, one that the book world has salivated over for months.”
Clinton said in a statement that he was enjoying writing the book with Patterson and that he couldn’t wait to see it become a series on Showtime, EW reported.
Many on Twitter were disappointed to learn the president wasn’t really missing, and others joked about former presidents' past exploits.
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