The abrupt death of its adaptation of The Corrections has not soured HBO on building its Sunday night lineup around the New York Times bestseller list: Today Deadline revealed that the network is moving forward on a show based on The Leftovers, Tom Perrotta's 2011 novel about a decimated population that attempts to pick up the pieces following a strange Rapture-like event—sort of like the Left Behind series, only way less obviously preachy and with no place for Kirk Cameron. The book features a ragtag group of survivors grappling with a huge metaphysical mystery while touching on themes of faith and morality. So, by plugging all of those keywords into the screenwriter database, HBO decided to hire Damon Lindelof to help Perrotta shape it all into a weekly series, including adding characters and storylines not introduced in the novel, some of which may even have logical arcs and proper resolutions.
Of course, the always self-deprecating Lindelof is already anticipating those sorts of jokes, and other hypothetical complaints about how the show will probably drag on for five seasons before it's revealed that all the disappeared were just swept up in God's giant hug or whatever. Speaking to Vulture, Lindelof acknowleged, " I'm sure there's a certain subset of viewers who watched Lost until the bitter end and will say, 'I'm just not going to put myself through that again.' But I'm so incredibly magnetized to this concept and the people in this story." Aha, so it's all about magnets. We've already figured it out.