The Stephen King remake train rolls on, and it’s time for his vampire classic Salem’s Lot to get an update.
THR reports that the similarly unstoppable duo of James Wan and Gary Dauberman are the ones tackling the script, taking a break from their ever-expanding Conjuring-verse. Dauberman is writing and Wan is not confirmed to direct, he’s on board as producer. Dauberman has written the screenplays for a hefty number of recent horror hits, including *deep breath* Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation, The Nun, IT (and IT: Chapter 2) and the upcoming Annabelle Comes Home, which he’s also directed.
Salem’s Lot was published in 1975 the story of the titular small town, where local boy turned bestselling author Ben Mears arrives home to discover that he’s not the only new arrival. Antique dealers Kurt Barlow and Richard Straker have bought the old Marsten house but they’re not just here to sell their wares. Evil spreads through the sleepy town like a virus and it’s up to Ben and a few hardy souls to stop it before it’s too late.
The book is arguably the best thing that King has ever written, and the 1979 Tobe Hooper miniseries (starring David Soul, Bonnie Bedelia and a marvellous James Mason) was responsible for giving a generation nightmares thanks to little Danny Glick scratching at the window. A barely-related sequel followed in the form of Larry Cohen’s A Return To Salem’s Lot, and the decent 2004 miniseries starred Rob Lowe, Donald Sutherland, Andre Braugher, Samantha Mathis, James Cromwell and Rutger Hauer brought the series into the present day and gave Barlow his voice back.
If they get this right, this could be the big-screen treatment the story has always deserved. If they get it wrong, it’s going to be such a waste.
“You’ll enjoy the master. And he’ll enjoy you…”
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