TV Week TV Week

By Kate O’Hare © Zap2it

It’s Monday, April 15, and cast, crew and a contingent of press are inside of a soundstage in Wilmington, N.C., watching a tense scene destined for the CBS summer event series, the 13-episode adaptation of the Stephen King novel, “Under the Dome.”

Premiering Monday, June 24, it chronicles the events in the small town of Chester’s Mill, Maine, when a transparent dome suddenly appears over it, putting every living thing there in utter isolation.

The large cast includes Mike Vogel (“Pan Am,” “Bates Motel”) as Dale “Barbie” Barbara, an Army veteran in town on a mysterious mission; Rachelle Lefevre as investigative reporter Julia Shumway, whose husband is suddenly nowhere to be found; Ned Bellamy as the Rev. Lester Coggins; Dean Norris as “Big Jim” Rennie, a politician and town bigwig; Alexander Koch as Junior, his disturbed son; Britt Robertson as Angie McAlister, a sharp-witted young woman involved with Junior; and Jeff Fahey as police chief Howard “Duke” Perkins.

Also starring are Colin Ford, Natalie Martinez, Nicholas Strong, Jolene Purdy and Aisha Hinds. Executive producers for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television are Neal Baer, King, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank, Stacey Snider, Jack Bender (who’s also the showrunner) and Brian K. Vaughan.

“Not only do I love the world, the Stephen King-ness of it,” says Bender in one of a series of prelunch interviews, “but I really am fascinated by these people that we get to put under the microscope by this dome.”

Bender previously worked on ABC’s “Lost,” about airline passengers who crash-land on an island, and he sees similarities.