New Line Adaptation Of Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot’ Finds Its Dr. Cody In Alfre Woodard

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-nominated actress Alfre Woodard is joining New Line‘s Salem’s Lot bunch in the big-screen take of the 1975 Stephen King vampire novel, we can tell you first.

She’ll play Dr. Cody, who in the novel is a guy, Dr. Jimmy Cody. Cody assists Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman in the film), Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh) and Matt Burke (Bill Camp) in fighting the spread of vampires. Spencer Treat Clark also stars as Mike Ryerson, as Deadline first reported. In King’s first New York Times No. 1 bestseller, author Ben Mears returns to his childhood home of Jerusalem’s Lot in search of inspiration for his next book, only to discover his hometown is being preyed upon by a bloodthirsty vampire.

Woodard recently starred in the critically acclaimed feature Clemency, for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination and a Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead. On the small screen, she stars opposite Jason Momoa in the Apple TV+ series See, created by Steven Knight. She also stars in the Netflix film Fatherhood alongside Kevin Hart. Upcoming projects includes her role in the Joe & Anthony Russo-directed film The Gray Man with Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, as well as the psychological thriller Viral\, which reunites Woodard with her Juanita co-star Blair Underwood.

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Other recent film appearances include the blockbusters Captain America: Civil War for Marvel, Jon Favreau’s live-action The Lion King and New Line’s Annabelle. Other Marvel projects she has starred in include Netflix’s Luke Cage, as the fierce Mariah Dillard, and as the title character in the Netflix film Juanita, which she also developed and produced.

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Acclaimed dramatic performances include her roles in Steve McQueen’s Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave, John Sayles’ Passion Fish, Maya Angelou’s Down in the Delta, Peter Bratt’s Follow Me Home, Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Love and Basketball for New Line, Spike Lee’s Crooklyn, Lawrence Kasdan’s Grand Canyon and Mumford, Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys, Billie Woodruff’s Beauty Shop with Queen Latifah, Richard Donner’s Scrooged opposite Bill Murray, as well as HBO’s Mandela and Miss Evers’ Boys.

Woodard has been nominated for 17 Emmy Awards (winning four), seven SAG Awards (winning three), three Golden Globe Awards (winning one), 21 NAACP Image Awards (wining nine) and two Independent Spirit Awards (winning one). Her Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress was for her performance in Martin Ritt’s Cross Creek. She is repped by ICM Partners, Circle of Confusion and Gochman Law Group

For Salem’s Lot, New Line is reuniting with the producing teams behind their record-breaking horror franchises The Conjuring Universe (highest-grossing horror franchise of all time with $2B+ worldwide) and the feature take on King’s It (combined through two films, $1.17B at global box). Producers are James Wan and Michael Clear for Atomic Monster and Roy Lee for Vertigo alongside Mark Wolper.

New Line frequent collaborator Gary Dauberman wrote the screenplay and is directing. Dauberman has written six films for New Line, including the global blockbuster two-film adaptation of Stephen King’s It and four installments in The Conjuring franchise, altogether amounting to over $2.4B worldwide. Dauberman made his directorial debut in 2019 with New Line’s critical and box office hit Annabelle Comes Home. Michael Bederman, Gary Dauberman, Atomic Monster’s Judson Scott, and Vertigo’s Andrew Childs are EPs on Salem’s Lot. New Line is also adapting King’s The Long Walk for the big screen.