Stephen King‘s 1975 vampire novel Salem’s Lot has found its big screen director. Horror writer Gary Dauberman has closed the deal to take the directorial reins of the New Line Feature adaptation, as well as serve as executive producer. He will be adapting the novel with producers James Wan, Roy Lee, and Mark Wolper.

Salem’s Lot centers on an author named Ben Mears who returns to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot (otherwise nicknamed as Salem’s Lot) in Maine to write about an abandoned mansion in the small town. Mears discovers that the home has been bought by a mysterious man from Europe, and soon realizes that townspeople are slowly being turned into vampires. The writer becomes allies with a ragtag group to stop the spread of vampires, with the final confrontation happening in the house with the mysterious man who may explain the outbreak’s eerie origin.

This will be the first time that Salem’s Lot will be adapted onto the big screen. Previous iterations of the story included a 1979 miniseries, a 1987 small-screen follow-up and a two-part TNT series in 2004.

Gary Dauberman has become a large, sought-out Hollywood horror screenwriter, making his feature directorial debut with Annabelle Comes Home. He also wrote the successful Stephen King adaptations, It and It Chapter Two and played a huge role in New Line Cineama’s Conjuring franchise, writing the spinoffs Annabelle, Annabelle Creation, and The Nun. In total, Dauberman has generated over $2.3 billion for Warner Bros. from his horror film hits.