“’Salem’s Lot” is finally on its way.
The new adaptation of Stephen King’s 1975 novel, considered by many to be one of the author’s very best, was shot in the summer of 2021 (with additional photography a year later). And then it just sat. For a while it was unclear whether Warner Bros. was just going to scrap the movie altogether, as it did with “Batgirl” and “Coyote vs. Acme.” Eventually the movie was shifted to premiere on the company’s streaming platform Max. We now have a date that it’ll debut (October 3) and a brand new trailer. Watch it below.
Lewis Pullman plays Ben Mears, a novelist who is drawn back to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot, obsessed with a supposedly haunted house, with a history of bad fortune, which has become even more evil with the arrival of an ancient supernatural force. Makenzie Leigh, Alfre Woodard, Pilou Asbæk and King legends William Sadler (“The Shawshank Redemption,” “The Green Mile,” “The Mist”) and Bill Camp (“The Outsider”) round out the cast.
The story of “’Salem’s Lot” has been adapted a few times before. In the late 1970s there was a two-part television miniseries that aired over Thanksgiving on CBS and was directed by “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” filmmaker Tobe Hooper. The miniseries was so successful that it inspired a theatrical sequel, “Return to ‘Salem’s Lot,” directed by Larry Cohen.
In 2004, an underrated two-part version aired on TNT, directed by Mikael Salomon and starring Rob Lowe. And the story of the novel was incorporated into the second season of “Castle Rock” on Hulu, with “Chapelwaite,” a one-season Epix series, based on a short story that was published after the novel (and was collected as part of the “Night Shift” collection).
This new film, which runs a svelte 113 minutes, was written, directed and executive produced by Gary Dauberman, who co-wrote the two “It” movies and wrote and directed the very fun “Annabelle Comes Home.” His “Annabelle” producer James Wan is also on board “’Salem’s Lot.”
“Salem’s Lot” premieres on Max on Oct. 3.
