Stephen King's Salem's Lot Finally Set to Premiere This Year
The project has been in limbo since 2022.
A new adaptation of Stephen King's novel 'Salem's Lot was seemingly completed all the way back in 2022, yet due in large part to the merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery, the film has failed to earn a release, with The Hollywood Reporter claiming today that the film is set to debut on Max later this year. This will disappoint fans who were expecting the film to hit theaters, but given that Warner Bros. Discovery has been embracing the disconcerting trend of completely scrapping movies that are finished, being able to get to see the movie at all will come as a relief to audiences.
Stephen King's website describes the story, "Author Ben Mears returns to 'Salem's Lot to write a book about a house that has haunted him since childhood only to find his isolated hometown infested with vampires. While the vampires claim more victims, Mears convinces a small group of believers to combat the undead."
The film stars Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Alfre Woodard, John Benjamin Hickey, Bill Camp, Jordan Preston Carter, and Pilou Asbaek. IT and Annabelle Comes Home writer Gary Dauberman directed the new adaptation.
To say it's been a complicated few years for Warner Bros. and HBO would be a bit of an understatement. Back in 2020, HBO rebranded their streaming service HBO Max, while also promising a number of exclusive movies and TV series would be coming to the platform. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, theaters around the world were shuttered, which saw Warner Bros. announcing its entire slate of 2021 films would debut on HBO Max and in theaters on the same day. While this excited some fans, knowing they could enjoy new releases at home, many filmmakers were devastated by how this would impact the box-office performance of their films.
In 2022, Warner Bros. and Discovery merged, which resulted in the rebranding of HBO Max as Max. As part of this new merger, some projects that were set to be HBO Max exclusives were scrapped, like the highly anticipated Batgirl. Other projects, like the sequel Evil Dead Rise, pivoted from being streaming exclusives to earning theatrical releases. Given the uncertain nature of the studio and the ever-changing landscape of streaming services, this new report is promising for Salem's Lot, but with it originally having a 2022 release date, it's hard to breathe a sigh of relief without getting an official look at the adaptation.
Stay tuned for updates on Salem's Lot.
Are you looking forward to the movie? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!