While Stephen King has taken to apologizing in recent interviews for the fact that the world feels like it’s living in one of his books, that doesn’t mean that the world isn’t ready to enjoy his works in isolation. With his new book, If It Bleeds, being pushed up for release into the end of this month, there’s going to be some new stories for King fans to rejoice in. Though that’s not all folks, as the planned theatrical adaptation of Salem’s Lot has just taken a big step forward, landing Stephen King vet Gary Dauberman as its director.
A new theatrical adaptation at Warner Bros with James Wan on board as a producer, it’s now been reported by Deadline that Salem’s Lot has the man who not only wrote both halves of IT, but also got his feet wet with directing last year’s horror hit Annabelle Comes Home. While the film was made for TV in two different incarnations, this will be the first cinematic visitation to one of Stephen King’s iconic New England towns, Jerusalem’s Lot.
Previously, Gary Dauberman had signed on as the writer for Salem’s Lot, and it was foreseen that he could be one of the candidates for the director’s chair when the rubber was bound to hit the road. Though it should be noted at this point that while the 1975 novel is heading into a new phase of its lifecycle, there’s probably a lot of caution being taken in the next steps. It should also be noted that this project shouldn’t be confused with the Epix’s series Jerusalem’s Lot, which is a prequel set before the events of Salem’s Lot. It’s also currently in development, and set to star Adrian Brody.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if between the recent drop in performance between IT and IT Chapter Two, as well as the outright dismal performance of Mike Flanagan’s Shining sequel Doctor Sleep, the hiring of Gary Dauberman was partially a move to ensure the safety of Salem’s Lot. With his new track record as a director, Dauberman serves as a triple threat on this particular project, as he’s also an executive producer.
The story of Salem’s Lot sees a New England author returning to his childhood home, only to learn that vampires have become the ruling class. So all at once, this sounds like a quintessential King tale, while also a bit different as vampires are not all that common in the universe shared by Stephen King’s various properties.
With a 439 page source, and Gary Dauberman’s experienced hand now firmly on the wheel to steer Salem’s Lot into production, all that’s waiting is further news on when things will take off and go before cameras. As the film has no intended dates for release or production in mind, there’s no real indication when we’ll be seeing this project hit theaters. Though as soon as we have more information, we’ll break those details here on CinemaBlend.
