EXCLUSIVE: AMC has made a pilot script commitment on the Owen King & Stephen King’s bestselling novel Sleeping Beauties. The goal is to create an open ended TV series and Owen King has been set to write the pilot script. Sugar23’s Michael Sugar and Ashley Zalta will be exec producers.

The book has the obligatory scares one would expect from the past work of the father-son author duo, but tells a timely metaphorical story about women and the gender role by imagining what would happen if men were left alone. It takes place in the near future in a small Appalachian town whose primary employer is a women’s prison. Something happens when women go to sleep; they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent. And while they sleep they go to another place. Meanwhile, the men are abandoned, left to their increasingly primal devices. One woman, the mysterious Evie, is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Evie a medical anomaly to be studied? Or is she a demon who must be slain?

“Owen and Stephen King found the perfect canvas to tell a haunting and gripping story that sparks a relevant conversation about gender equality and individuality,” said Ashley Zalta, Sugar 23’s Head of Production and EP. “We couldn’t be more excited about this collaboration with the Kings and with AMC, who have so often boldly redefined genres.”

Said Stephen King: “I’m tremendously excited to see Sleeping Beauties brought to life in a format that will allow the story to be told as it was meant to be told, in all its mystery and drama. “

Said Owen King: “We’re so happy to be working with Michael, Ashley, and AMC on Sleeping Beauties. We can’t imagine a better match.”

Sugar and Zalta made a deal with the King clan last year when they were with Anonymous Content, which will also be producing.

Stephen King is repped by Paradigm. Owen King is repped by the Lynn Pleshette Literary Agency and Thruline Entertainment. Both are lawyered by Gang Tyre.