Bill Clinton's forthcoming novel is getting made into a TV show

Bill Clinton and James Patterson still haven't published The President is Missing, but Showtime has already snatched up the rights to adapt the thriller. The network announced Friday that an upcoming TV adaptation of the also-upcoming novel will be adapted into a series following its publication.

“Bringing The President is Missing to Showtime is a coup of the highest order,” Showtime C.E.O. and President David Nevins said in a press release. “The pairing of President Clinton with fiction’s most gripping storyteller promises a kinetic experience, one that the book world has salivated over for months and that now will dovetail perfectly into a politically relevant, character-based action series for our network.”

The novel investigates the unexplained disappearance of a sitting U.S. president, and Patterson said Clinton's firsthand experience is what sets the story apart.

“The White House is such an exciting world to explore and is made even more so with the unique insights of a former President,” the bestselling author said in the same release.  “Rich storytelling opportunities for this series abound.”

The President is Missing is due in bookstores in 2018.