It seems like there’s never a shortage of upcoming Stephen King movies and TV shows, but for one of these projects, we’ll apparently need to adjust our viewing plans for it. It was reported earlier this week that Warner Bros. Pictures intends to release the Salem’s Lot remake as a Max exclusive now rather than in theaters. Fresh off that news, King himself is now hyping the upcoming remake of his 1975 novel, which, among other things, he described as “faithful.”
Just so we’re all on the same page, it hasn’t been officially confirmed that Salem’s Lot will go straight to streaming, only that as of this writing, it remains delayed and without a specific release date. But as one shouldn’t be surprised, King is has already seen the movie and shared his thoughts about it on X (formerly known as Twitter), starting with the following:
The Warner Bros remake of SALEM’S LOT, currently shelved, is muscular and involving. It has the feel of “Old Hollywood,” when a film was given a chance to draw a breath before getting to business. When attention spans were longer, in other words.
There was a time when Salem’s Lot was supposed to be released on April 21, 2023, but Warner Bros. ended up moving it out of that spot and slotted in Evil Dead Rise instead. So although there’s word that the studio wants to send it to Max subscribers (which is apparently motivated by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike), “shelved” isn’t a bad description for that project currently. Still, Stephen King is clearly impressed by what he saw and is eager for the public to experience it too, even if he doesn’t approve of certain creative decisions. He continued in a separate X post:
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.
Stephen King added in separate posts that the “best scene” in the Salem’s Lot remake is “Danny Glick in the hospital, trying to claw down a blood bag,” which he said “could have been directed by John Carpenter in his prime.” This will be the second time the original novel has been adapted in live-action, the first time being for a 1979 TV miniseries. However, this world was briefly explored on the big screen in 1987’s A Return to Salem’s Lot, which was a sequel to the miniseries.
As far as this new adaptation goes, the Salem’s Lot cast includes Lewis Pullman as Ben Mears, Makenzie Leigh as Susan Norton, Alfre Woodard as Dr. Cody, Bill Camp as Matthew Burke and Pilou Asbæk as Richard Straker, among others. Gary Dauberman, who has prior Stephen King experience from writing the IT movies, both penned and directed this feature. Ironically, if this Max plan ends up being implemented for Salem’s Lot, it’ll be the opposite of what was done for the last King film adaptation, The Boogeyman, which was given a theatrical rollout after initially being intended exclusively for people with a Hulu subscription.
Whether it first plays on a big screen or will only be available streaming, let’s hope Salem’s Lot scores a new release date so fans can know when they’ll get to witness all the compelling material that Stephen King has teased. Until then, keep track of what movies are definitely coming out in the near future with our 2023 release schedule and 2024 release schedule.