Stephen King is teaming up with E1 Entertainment to adapt his 2005 novella The Colorado Kid into an hour-long series, entitled Haven.

E1 is to coproduce the 13-part suspense drama with the creative team behind an earlier and successful adaptation, The Dead Zone, which ended a six-season run in 2008 on USA Networks. Scott Shepherd will showrun Haven, with partners Lloyd Segan and Shawn Piller serving as executive producers.

The new drama will feature FBI agent Audrey Parker trying to keep supernatural forces at bay in a small Maine town where the cursed gather to lead normal lives.

E1 Entertainment’s John Morayniss and Noreen Halpern will also share the executive producer credits along with the writers of the Haven pilot, Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn.

Both writers were involved in The Dead Zone, the Lionsgate Television series that shot its first five seasons in Vancouver before production shifted to Montreal.

Morayniss welcomed the collaboration with King. ‘This partnership is perfectly in line with E1’s ongoing mandate to partner with the best in the business. Haven has all of the right ingredients to make it a worldwide hit, and we are already in discussions with European broadcast partners,’ says the E1 CEO.

Production on Haven is expected to start within six months.

E1 will retain worldwide rights to Haven, and begin shopping the series at MIPCOM, where it aims to bring international broadcast partners on board.

The project comes on top of separate dramas in the E1 pipeline, including Hung for HBO, The Bridge for CTV and CBS, and Copper for Canwest Global and ABC.

The indie producer is also set to start shooting another drama for Canwest Global, Shattered, beginning Oct. 26 in Vancouver. Callum Keith Rennie is on board in the lead role of an ex-cop and Kim Clements will showrun the police drama. Kari Skogland (50 Dead Men Walking) will direct the pilot and third episode of Shattered.

E1 is also to coproduce along with Amaze Film + Television and Big Motion Pictures the comedy Meet Phil Fitz, to star Jason Priestley.

Priestley is to play a morally bankrupt used-car salesman working alongside a new and honest salesman who becomes his alter-ego. The half-hour sitcom, written and executive produced by Sheri Elwood for Movie Central and The Movie Network, will shoot in Halifax, and bow in 2010.