SALEM'S LOT Director Says Stephen King's Support of Film Helped Push Warner Bros. to Release It
The new adaption of Stephen King’s terrifying vampire novel Salem's Lot is finally going to be released after two years of sitting on the shelf. It will not get a theatrical release, which is a shame, but it will be coming to Max.
According to director Gary Dauberman, Salem’s Lot might not have been released at all without the support of King!
During an interview with Total Film, the filmmaker said: "I’m extremely thankful for Steve’s support.” When asked about what exactly King did to help, the director simply adds, "Let’s just say it provided some shock support for some of the more bumpy portions of this journey and leave it at that."
I saw a trailer for this film two years ago at CinemaCon, and I was really impressed by what I saw! This looked like a great and scary vampire film!
King has said he was impressed with the movie saying: "Between you and me, Twitter, I've seen the new SALEM'S LOT and it's quite good. Old-school horror filmmaking: slow build, big payoff.
“Not sure why WB is holding it back; not like it's embarrassing, or anything. Who knows. I just write the f--king things."
King also talked about the film several months ago, saying: "It feels like a horror movie version of slow-burn movies like THE GREAT ESCAPE. It builds very well.
“There are diversions from the book I don't agree with, but on the whole, faithful. Best scene: Danny Glick in the hospital, trying to claw down a blood bag. The Glick scene could have been directed by John Carpenter in his prime."
When asked if he saw his movie as a riposte to romantic, tween-friendly bloodsuckers, Dauberman says: "It wasn’t about reclaiming anything. It’s always cool to see different interpretations of vampires. That said, I hadn’t seen a more traditional vampire movie in a long while so I thought maybe one was due."
Lewis Pullman (Bad Times at the El Royale, Top Gun: Maverick) stars in Salem’s Lot, and he will take on the role of author Ben Mears, “a man who 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 vampire, leading him to band together with a ragtag group that will fight the evil presence.”
When previously talking about the movie, Pullman said: "It's a scary thing doing these remakes, man. It's like, this and [Top Gun: Maverick], there's such pressure, it's a hard concoction to conjure up to make it successful.
“But Gary Dauberman, the director, is really keen on doing justice to the book. But also, the previous adaptation was a two-parter, because it's such a hefty book and there are so many different moving parts and so many characters.
“So there are some parts where Gary had to press and find what was really at the heart of the movie to keep in, but for the most part, he's really true to the book and keeping a lot of the original dialogue in there. He's a Stephen King hound dog so he doesn't wanna do Stephen dirty."
He added: "So I think it's in good hands, Gary's a really smart guy who has a keen eye for things. I think, not just lean on the jump scares, but lean on the more conceptual and visual things that, rather than a shock that fades out of your body in the next five minutes, something that's more visual, like an imprint that burnt into your retinas as a disturbing image that you'll wake up in the middle of the night that you can't shake out of your head."
The movie will be released on Max in October 2024.
