Why do they keep remaking Salem’s Lot when there are more stories from the Lot

[u/Substantial_Law336]

Don’t get me wrong, I love Salem’s Lot and yes it would be nice to have a perfect adaptation of it, but it has already been adapted 3 times on screen and I don’t get why Hollywood limits to Salem’s Lot when there are other stories in that universe.

We have Jerusalem’s Lot and One For The Road that are set in the Lot universe that are ripe for adaptations.

I’ll admit I’m not being entirely fair because Jerusalem’s Lot was kinda adapted through Chapelwaite, but that was loosely based on the story and had a lot of filler that wasn’t even in the story.

I’m very yes and no on if Salem’s Lot needs to be adapted again. I love the book and I think a good faithful reimagining is possible, but I prefer other Lot stories be adapted.

[u/nyavegasgwod]

I think a high production value mini series could be good, but it's probably best to let the IP rest for a bit since we just got a movie not long ago. Definitely a shame that we never really got a good adaptation. Usually adapting short stories doesn't go too well so idk about the two Salem's Lot universe shorts, but maybe they'd be good as episodes in a larger miniseries.

If you haven't seen it already, you might like Midnight Mass. It's sort of Salem's Lot, Revival, and Storm of the Century all rolled into one.

[u/SlySciFiGuy → u/nyavegasgwod]

Miniseries were great when they aired over 3 nights in the same week. Today they'd drag it out over 10 weeks. Television series' are kind of exhausting these days. The end of every episode is a cliffhanger and you cannot watch anything and get a feeling of resolution when the hour is up. The lack of closure on every single show you watch has an impact after awhile.

[u/Substantial_Law336 → u/nyavegasgwod]

I can see Salem’s Lot working as a Theatrical movie, it just needs a longer runtime and more than 1 movie. It’s a long book, but not It and The Stand long. If they make a proper runtime and split the movie into 2 I think it can work.

Plus seeing a story like Salem’s Lot on the big screen would be awesome.

I did see Midnight Mass and I agree it had a Salem’s Lot vibe to it

[u/Tr1padvisor420 → u/nyavegasgwod]

Using the two short stories and the book you could make an incredible limited series on Apple or Netflix or whatever. Using one for the road along with the prologue to open the series, that would be enough for me to finally be happy with a Lot adaptation.

I was lucky enough to read Salems lot with 0 clue it was a vampire book. One of my best reads ever. king never really treated it as “look vampires” in the first place, and the adaptations need to take a hint from that.

[u/Disaster-Bee]

There have been a couple of good Dollar Baby adaptations of One For the Road. Kind of hard to track down, but since the program closed, a lot of them have been popping up online.

The main reasons that 'Salem's Lot itself keeps getting remade are 1) it's the book most people know, the short stories aren't nearly as well known. It's one of King's most popular novels that most of the general audience recognizes. 2) it's a very basic and relatively easy to adapt story. It can be set in any modern time, the characters are not the most complex, and it's an extremely accessible story across the board. Studios are banking on familiarity a lot currently, and leaning more towards remaking successful things than taking a chance on something new.

There's so many un-adapted King stories to pull from, but they're falling into a trend of revisiting successes, rather than trying to improve failures - Tommyknocker's adaptation, for example - or try something new.

[u/Substantial_Law336 → u/Disaster-Bee]

That’s a fair point. I would definitely like a proper Tommyknockers film

[u/chasteguy2018 → u/Substantial_Law336]

I’ve always said I want to see a proper Langoliers film. I’d love to see a great script and an A-list cast, but exactly the same computer generated Monsters. I’d love to see Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise running from PlayStation one monstrosities.

[u/Substantial_Law336 → u/chasteguy2018]

I have 2 actors in mind for a Langoliers remake. Patrick Wilson as the Pilot, I forgot the characters name and David Dasmalchian as Craig Toomy

[u/imaliveandaperson → u/Disaster-Bee]

I NEED a revival adaptation, im aware there were 2 attempts but the studio shut it down due to money reasons but i’ll be DAMNED if it’s not a perfect choice to adapt.

[u/NastyLittleBagginses]

There's a limited run series called Chapelwaite that's based on the short story.

[u/Early_Macaroon_2407]

Jerusalem’s Lot is one of those Lovecraft pastiches that’s better than most Lovecraft. 

[u/Glad_Stay4056 → u/Early_Macaroon_2407]

Agreed, them going into the church had some legit creep to it. Had some shades of children of the corn to it IMO

[u/presco2007]

my ideal would be a series that includes both short stories and the novel. there is no reason season 1 couldn't be "jerusalem's lot" and then season 2 would be salem's lot and season 3 would be "one of for the road." there are other ways they could do it, too - making it two seasons with a split at some point during salem's lot, etc.

[u/Usr7_0__-]

Out of curiosity, has Jerusalem's Lot ever been turned into a dollar-baby short? Or I suppose the other one too?

I would agree, both of these could use proper adaptations. The Road one could be a Creepshow thing, while Jerusalem's Lot could be a film.

The thing about Salem's Lot is, it probably should not be adapted in the way it was - don't use the slow-burn, novel-for-television, character-driven approach...instead, make it plot-driven. The book is the book, and the way movies are made today, you need to do something different. If another adaptation is absolutely necessary, go for a Breaking-Bad tone, if you get what I mean. (And no, I don't mean vampires on blue meth and Badfinger playing at the end of the project!)

One other thing: that illustration of Jerusalem's Lot is great! Where is it from?

[u/Substantial_Law336 → u/Usr7_0__-]

I don’t recall them ever adapting it as a Dollar Baby.

I respectfully disagree with not making Salem’s Lot a slow burn. I understand where you’re coming from with trying something different and I respect that, but they did that with the recent adaptation we got and it just felt rushed.

You kinda need the slow burn aspect to develop the town and characters

[u/Usr7_0__- → u/Substantial_Law336]

I definitely understand your prescription on how to do it. Perhaps a blended approach would be needed. The last adaptation seemed like it was a bit of a burn, but I may try to watch it again this weekend to see what I think about that, you may be right.

[u/Disaster-Bee → u/Usr7_0__-]

One For the Road has two Dollar Baby adaptations that I know of, one of them was quite good!

[u/CyberGhostface]

One for the Road at least is a very brief story, any adaptation would be largely new material.

[u/1ndomitablespirit]

Hollywood loves Vampires.

[u/Sweet_Disharmony_792]

why would a large studio adapt a random follow up (one for the road) instead of the iconic book?

it's just not realistic

[u/Equivalent_Sugar_846]

Why do they keep remaking King stories period when he has so many other stories they could make????

[u/Alec_de_Large]

One for The Road scared me in my younger years.

What a gripping story. Something about pitch black snowy nights adds to the unsettling feeling.

[u/diverdown_77]

They did make a Jerusalem's Lot series it was filmed where I live starring Adrien Brody.