‘Salem’s Lot’: James Wan-Produced Vampire Pic Taps ‘Top Gun: Maverick’s Lewis Pullman As Lead Of The Stephen King Adaptation

New Line Cinema, producer James Wan, and writer/director Gary Dauberman are teaming up for a new feature film adaption of the Stephen King novel Salem’s Lot, which features vampires in a small town.

Salem’s Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved. Author Ben Mears returns to Salem’s Lot to write a book about a house that has haunted him since childhood only to find his isolated hometown infested with vampires. While the vampires claim more victims, Mears convinces a small group of believers to combat the undead.

There is finally some casting news to share on the project.

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that the horror film’s protagonist, Ben Mears, will be played by Lewis Pullman (son of Bill Pullman), who is likely best known from Bad Times At The El Royale and will be seen in Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick.

Filming on Salem’s Lot begins next month in Boston, according to the report.

It’ll be interesting if they’ll end up hiring bigger names or seasoned actors to surround Pullman in the supporting cast.

You might remember that Gary Dauberman previously wrote the scripts for Andy Muschietti’s It and It: Chapter Two for director, another Stephen King adaptation. He’s also wrote stuff such as the Swamp Thing series, The Nun, Annabelle Comes Homes, Annabelle: Creation, and Annabelle.

The Ronin previously confirmed that cinematographer Michael Burgess would be the film’s director of photography. With extensive horror credits such as Annabelle Comes Home, The Nun, The Conjuring 2, The Curse of La Llorona, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, and James Wan’s upcoming horror pic Malignant.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

EXCLUSIVE: Timothee Chalamet’s ‘Wonka’ Movie Enlists ‘Godzilla’ & ‘Avengers’ Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey

The Ronin can confirm that cinematographer Seamus McGarvey has joined the production of Wonka, the prequel film about Willy Wonka that will be played by Timothee Chalamet (Dune). McGarvey is best known for his work on Marvel’s The Avengers, Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla reboot, Atonement, and Bad Times At The El Royale.

Willy Wonky had been previously played by Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp.

Paul King, the director of the first two Paddington movies, is at the helm with production taking place at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Watford, England.The facility in Watford is the home base of the Potterverse franchise and has been one of the key places that the modern era of DC Comics movies are shot as The Batman, The Flash, and Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom have recently used their stages.

Paul King and Simon Farnaby co-wrote the latest incarnation of the script, the prequel film is said to include song and dance numbers, just like the last two movies. King had been attached to Disney’s live-action Pinocchio movie before exiting to focus on Wonka and was replaced with Robert Zemeckis (Back To The Future 1-3)

Christopher Nolan’s longtime production designer Nathan Crowley (Tenet, Inception, The Dark Knight, John Carter, Interstellar) is also confirmed for the film and had been previously announced.

The production team being assembled would suggest the project might be bigger than people might have originally imagined. An official release date for Wonka hasn’t been announced by Warner Bros., but there is an expectation it will be released sometime in 2023.

Below are some examples of Seamus McGarvey’s work.

WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY – A sweet boy from a poor family dreams of finding one of five golden tickets hidden inside chocolate bar wrappers which will admit him to the eccentric and reclusive Willy Wonka’s magical factory. One after another, tickets are discovered by ghastly children – but will the lad find the last remaining one and have all his dreams come true?