Straight from a press release comes word that the latest adaptation of Steven King’s vampire tale “Salem’s Lot” is coming to WBD’s streamer Max in October! It reads –
“New Line Cinema’s film adaptation of Stephen King’s 1975 bestselling novel “Salem’s Lot” will debut this October on Max. The Max Original film SALEM’S LOT reunites the producing teams behind the record-breaking horror franchises “The Conjuring” universe and the “It” films. Gary Dauberman writes, directs, and executive produces the film. Producers are James Wan and Michael Clear for Atomic Monster; Roy Lee for Vertigo; and Mark Wolper.”
Author Ben Mears returns to his childhood home of Jerusalem’s Lot in search of inspiration for his next book only to discover his hometown is being preyed upon by a bloodthirsty vampire. Of course, this is not the first telling of the tale. Don’t I remember correctly that David Soul of Starsky & Hutch was in a version? Yes, he was in a two-part miniseries back in 1979 which was directed by Tobe Hooper for CBS. Soul played Mears, James Mason was Straker, and Austrian actor Reggie Nalder was Kurt Barlow. But there was a 2004 version, for TNT, told in two parts as well. I don’t remember it at all but it starred Rob Lowe as Mears with Donald Sunderland as Straker and Ruther Hauer as Barlow. Hey, if you don’t know who those characters are then you just aren’t a King fan. For New Line Cinema’s take, the lead & supporting cast break down as follows – Lewis Pullman (Ben Mears), Alfre Woodard (Dr. Cody), Makenzie Leigh (Susan Norton), Bill Camp (Matthew Burke), Spencer Treat Clark (Mike Ryerson), Pilou Asbæk (Straker), and John Benjamin Hickey (Father Callahan). Interestingly, no one is listed in the Kurt Barlow role. All right, if you don’t know Barlow is the vampire in the story. I’ll guess we’ll wait and see what the gruesome tooth-some looks like, won’t we?
The big question about SALEM’S LOT is not the plot, for, as we have proven, it is an often-told story. Nor is it about production value as Gary Dauberman has proven he knows his way around Stephen King’s work and horror in general. The question lies with how such a big movie is regulated to a Max premiere instead of a big screen one. WBD CEO David Zaslav has always made it clear how theatrical movies are the bread and butter and how he doesn’t believe in straight-to-streaming movies. And yet, a couple of titles have debuted on Max now with SALEM’s LOT being the biggest one to date. I guess we Max subscribers should just feel lucky.
No date is set for SALEM’S LOT other than an October 2024 date, but the closest Friday & Saturday (if it is also going to appear as an HBO Saturday Night Movie) is October 25 & 26. Are you excited about SALEM’S LOT?
