Sneak Peek of 'Under the Dome': Stephen King Says It's 'Riveting TV' [Video]

Get a first look at the summer series based on King's novel.

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It's going to be a spooky summer on CBS.

In "Under the Dome," a 13-week series based on Stephen King's novel by the same name, a small town is cut off from the rest of the world by an inexplicable clear dome. Nobody knows where it came from, and nobody knows how to get rid of it. Mayhem rules as the townspeople fight for supplies and argue about courses of action. In a new extended sneak peek, King calls it "riveting TV."

"People's eyes are going to bug out of their heads when they see it," the author promises.

The mystery thriller's large cast boasts names like Dean Norris ("Breaking Bad"), Rachelle Lefevre ("Twilight"), Mike Vogel ("Pan Am"), and Britt Robertson ("The Secret Circle"). Behind the scenes, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" director Niels Arden Oplev helmed the pilot, while TV veterans like Neal Baer ("Law & Order: SVU") and Jack Bender ("Lost") are guiding the production.

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Bender's tie to "Lost" invites many comparisons between the two shows, which he welcomes.

"All I know is that [after] 'Lost,' there were a lot of shows that came on that were like, 'Here's what we're going to do that's better than 'Lost.' We're not ending up like 'Lost.' And those shows are all gone," noted Bender at last week's WonderCon. "So what I hope to do is rip off from 'Lost' as much as possible."

What "Under the Dome" won't do is follow the book by the letter, a direction that King himself blessed. In fact, producers have said the series' ending will be different from the novel's.

The summer series has benefited from a lot of hype, starting with a teaser ad during the Super Bowl. Norris, an avid Twitter user, has been posting teasers on the video-sharing social network Vine. Check them out:

Many of King's works have been adapted for television, from "It" to "The Stand" to "The Shining." "Bag of Bones" aired on A&E in 2011, and "Haven" (loosely based on "The Colorado Kid") is approaching its fourth season on Syfy.