Salem’s Lot will be haunting audiences a little later than planned. Warner Bros. has moved the Stephen King adaptation to April 21, 2023. The New Line project was previously slated to open Sept. 9 of this year, a favorite corridor for King adaptations such as It (2017) and It: Chapter Two (2019).
Veteran horror scribe Gary Dauberman, known for writing the It films and helming Annabelle Comes Home, is directing a cast that includes Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Alfre Woodard, John Benjamin Hickey, Bill Camp, Jordan Preston Carter and Pilou Asbaek.
King published Salem’s Lot in 1975. The book centers on an author who returns to his hometown only to discover townspeople are slowly being turned into vampires. James Wan, Michael Clear, Roy Lee and Mark Wolper are producing.
Warners also removed from the schedule The Last Train to New York, a remake of the Korean zombie hit Train to Busan. Dauberman penned the script with Timo Tjahjanto directing and James Wan producing.
The studio also unscheduled House Party, which was slated to hit HBO Max on July 28. The reboot stars Tosin Cole And Jacob Latimore. The studio, which release first-look images back in May, did not announce release plans for the film at this time.
The loss of Salem’s Lot from the September calendar comes as box office observers are concerned over a lull in product in the coming months.
