Did Warner Bros. get spooked?
The studio is looking to jettison its horror film Salems Lot to Max, sources say. Warner Bros. developed it for a theatrical rollout, but after sitting on the shelf for a year, the Gary Dauberman-directed Stephen King adaptation is poised to make its debut on the Warner Bros. Discovery streaming platform.
A source with knowledge of the back-and-forth says the move is not a reflection of the films quality but is due to the fact that the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike has created a growing need for Max content. Salems Lot is one of a few Warner Bros. films deemed to make the jump. But a Warner Bros. spokespersonsaid, No decision has been made about the films future distribution plans.
Salems Lot, which shot in Massachusetts in 2021, was intended as a September 2022 release, with the month proving to be a successful pre-Halloween horror corridor for the studio. But Warners pushed the film to spring 2023, citing COVID-related postproduction delays. Earlier this month, Salems Lot quietly moved off the schedule altogether, prompting speculation that it would be a Warner Bros. Discovery tax write-off in the vein of last years Batgirl.
Starring Top Gun: Mavericks Lewis Pullman, the films cast also includes Makenzie Leigh,Bill Camp, Pilou Asbaek, Alfre Woodard and William Sadler. Dauberman, who began developing the project in 2019, also wrote the screenplay. James Wan is a producer on the new Salems Lot via his Atomic Monster, the company behind a bevy of Warner Bros. horror hits from the Conjuring franchise.
As with the original two-part CBS miniseries from1979, the storyline follows a writer who returns to his hometown of the fictitious Jerusalems Lot to find he must then do battle with vampires. The book also was adapted in 2004 by TNT for an Emmy-nominated series starring Rob Lowe.
In the past, King novels have boosted Warners at the box office, most notably with Andy Muschiettis low-budget adaptation of It, which earned $704 million worldwide in 2017.