The New Line adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot has finally nabbed a director. Is this good news or bad news? Well, it’s mixed news. But we proceed with caution.
Deadline reports that Gary Dauberman will helm the feature, with James Wan set to produce alongside Roy Lee and Mark Wolverine.
Dauberman is best known for his work writing on the creepy Annabelle series. He wrote Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation and Annabelle Comes Home (which Dauberman also directed to fairly positive marks from critics). He also wrote The Nun and The Curse of La Llorona. Some of those movies weren’t good. In fact, some of them really blew! But they did foster a great working relationship with James Wan, who has done solid work and whose judgement I trust.
For me, the most important thing about Dauberman is that he co-wrote It: Chapter One and later Chapter Two by himself. Those are important credits because they were tricky adaptations that were incredibly successful, in terms of box office and in terms of loyalty to King’s work. It isn’t always easy to adapt a Stephen King book (what with the child orgies and giant talking turtles) but Dauberman did a damn fine job of retaining the heart and soul of the story while refining certain things for the big screen.
We all know Salem’s Lot, King’s early vampire novel about a small town in Maine (imagine that) that becomes infested with bloodsuckers looking to overtake the city. It’s a brilliant book, one of King’s best and, honestly, one of his scariest. There is a certain grave-digging scene in the novel that still haunts me to this day. It’s great stuff.
Dauberman might not have the greatest track record on Earth but his work with Wan and on other King adaptations gives me a lot of hope. There are many ways this could still go wrong, it has countless times before with King movies. But I am crossing my fingers that Salem’s Lot is a solid movie because I love the book so much. Don’t mess this up, Dauberman! Only the vampires should suck!