Gary Dauberman Directing Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot’

Back in April, we spoke about how Gary Dauberman was penning the script for a new adaption of Stephen King’s vampire thriller Salem’s Lot. Well, now it seems that Dauberman has shifted seats and will now direct the project too. Dauberman just recently his directorial debut on “Annabelle Comes Home” and according to THR, his next project will be based on the script his currently penning, for New Line films and Producers James Wan, Roy Lee and Mark Wolper .

The novel, published in 1975, follows a writer returning to his childhood home of Jerusalem’s Lot, but discovers that vampires are slowly transforming the sleepy little town into a haven for the un-dead. Salem’s Lot has never been adapted as a cinema release, but it did get a TV mini series in 1979 directed by Tobe Hooper and starring David Soul. In the UK, the miniseries was cut into a 90 minute film that was released on VHS. It cut out a lot of the humor and secondary characters was actually a much darker film for it. I never saw the full mini series until it came out on DVD back in the early 2000s. For over 20 years, I never knew what become of Bonnie Bedelia’s Susan Norton. She simply walked into the The Marsten House and never came out. 

Another TV Minis series starring Rob Lowe was released in 2004 but pretty much went under the radar. To this day, I’ve yet to see a film that relied so heavily on cheap CGI for vampire fangs and eyes. 

Dauberman spoke with Slash Film last year and had this to say about his script.

I haven’t seen a scary vampire movie in a long, long time and I’d really love to tackle that. It’s one of my favorite books. It’s one of my favorite Stephen King books. We felt it should have the cinematic treatment that we gave It. It was a miniseries as well. The experience of bringing that to the big screen was such a joy that I was so happy we will have the opportunity to do that for Salem’s Lot… Salem’s Lot is the only thing that’s in front of me right now that I want to work on. It’s been fun exploring the dark corners of that town. I’m kind of a one track mind. I don’t plot too far ahead and I’m overjoyed I get to work on Salem’s Lot so right now that’s all there is for me. There’s a number of stuff in the works that I’m not a part of that I’m very excited to see when they eventually come out.

It’s still early days yet, but I’m sure we’ll start to hear more as the project ramps up.

Are you excited about a new adaption of Salem’s Lot? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @Lallen_UK

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