Annabelle Comes Home filmmaker to direct Salem's Lot movie

It and It Chapter Two screenwriter Gary Dauberman will direct the movie adaptation of Stephen King's vampire novel 'Salem's Lot, EW has confirmed. It was announced last April that Dauberman is writing the script for the film, which is being produced by Conjuring and Aquaman director James Wan.

Published in 1975, 'Salem's Lot concerns a writer named Ben Mears who discovers that his home town of Jerusalem's Lot is being taken over by vampires. The novel was previously turned into a 1979 miniseries starring David Soul and James Mason and directed by Texas Chain Saw Massacre filmmaker Tobe Hooper.

Dauberman made his directorial debut last year with the hit horror sequel Annabelle Comes Home, which he also wrote. His other writing credits include Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation, The Nun, and the Swamp Thing TV show.

Dauberman is a longtime fan of King.

"Stephen King was probably a bigger influence on me than any other movie," Dauberman told EW in 2017. "You know, you have Christopher Pike, you have R.L. Stine, and then you graduate to Stephen King. He’s like the gateway drug in terms of the adult horror world.”

The news was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

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