The last one Salem’s place The adaptation, written and directed by Gary Dauberman, tackles Stephen King’s second novel as a movie rather than a TV miniseries — but that’s not the only major change that sets it apart. Starring Lewis Pullman as Ben Mears, the Max film follows the author’s homecoming and sees his hopes of writing about a haunted house turn into an escape from a vampire. Such a trajectory is familiar, but there is an interesting difference in how the new remake incorporates the character of Dr. Cody.
The 2004 miniseries featured The matrix reloadeds Robert Mammone in the role of the doctor, who is male in King’s book, but the 2024 Salem’s place stars Alfre Woodard and revises the role to reflect her gender. The film also stars Spencer Treat Clarke, Pilou Asbæk, William Sadler, Makenzie Lei, and Alexander Ward as the infamous Kurt Barlow. Since fans have been waiting since 2022 to see the long-delayed project come to light, hopes are high that it will be the perfect trick for the Halloween season.
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Screen Rant Interviewed Alfre Woodard about why she was drawn to the new remake of Salem’s placeHow her character changed from King’s version, and why she thinks the Max movie is a modern-day equivalent to 1922’s Nosferatu.
Alfre Woodard explains how the New Salem’s plot evolves the role of Dr. Cody
“I love the fact that we’re in 1975, and the woman doctor figures so highly now.”
Screen Rant: How familiar were you with the original Stephen King novel before taking on the role of Dr. Cody?
Alfre Woodard: Well, I haven’t read the novel Salem’s Plot. I’ve seen the incarnations of it on screen over the years, and I didn’t want to go back and have any kind of information about it. So I went from that Gary [Dauberman] Wrote, the story he wanted to tell, and I just let that inform everything I did, because him as a writer, executive producer and director, as smart as he is. He’s cinematically smart, King is literary smart, but there’s no Steve in the mix that was presented here, so I knew it was going to be a tight, wonderful, classic horror story.
I’m also excited that it’s coming out now instead of some other time. Not only because it’s all Halloween-y, but it’s also a scary time in our country, in our world, especially the way that the vampire seduces and takes hold of normal good minds and good hearts. We can all talk about how this happens in election years. Good people can be vampires, and good people can also let small things infect their spirits.
Screen Rant: Dr. Cody is an evil doctor who can kill vampires, but tell us a little more about Dr. Cody. What drew you to play in this world?
Alfre Woodard: Of course, I’m a woman, but you don’t have to change the role. I knew it was written – even this time – for a man, and I knew because I was told and I talked about it and saw the expressions of what Dr. Cady originally asked me to do and be.
So, I was excited when I got it that there was a different direction for it. And for me, as a woman, thinking back to 1975, that was the first time when people started to really talk about women doctors in different ways, because all of us grew up with gynecologists who were men. But I remember being in Boston with 300,000 college students there, and suddenly there were a lot of women OBGYNs. You have to say, “Well, I’m going to leave my pediatrician and go to this person.” When we started talking about reproductive health, you had the option of going to a woman, so I love the fact that we’re in 1975, and the woman doctor figures so highly now.
I have a backstory I made up, but she is a doctor for two or three small towns in Maine. She is a mine because she went to Bates, and she met her husband there. He’s in the woods, and he’s passed, but she’s been there for their entire marriage of 40 years or something. She gets to practice there in a way she can’t practice in Boston or in Providence or anywhere else on the East Coast. I’m just interested in all these things, and the fact that she wrestles a vampire and she doesn’t fall down and go, “Oh, I’m little! It’s curtains for me.” I wanted to explore all that and prove it.
Salem’s site approaches vampires in a new angle, but older movies still inspire it
“… what a beautiful time the 70s were before the vampires came along.”
Screen Rant: One thing I love about Salem’s place Premium on Max is that you can do your in-home double features. If fans wanted to pair up Salem’s place Given another vampire film or a Stephen King film, what would your choice be?
Alfre Woodard: I would do Salem’s Lot and the 1922 Nosferatu.
That’s scary. Maybe because it was German, the whole sensibility. Again, it’s the simplicity of working with what you have. You discover more things. I think that’s one of the cool things about this piece: the production values, the set-up, the costuming, the cinematography, and the fact that Gary is editing.
He knows what he needs as he goes. He knows where he wants all this. It makes – again – for simplicity that first draws us in and reminds us of what a beautiful time the ’70s were before the vampires came. I think the two together, because they are so far apart in time and what we can do with a camera and with production design, are the best of the era because they use all of that to make the most honest and clean production.
More about Salem’s Lot (2024)
Author Ben Mears returns to his childhood home of Jerusalem’s Lot in search of inspiration for his next book only to discover that his hometown is being preyed upon by a bloodthirsty vampire.
Check out our others Salem’s place Interview here:
Source: Screen Rant Plus