The Long Walk Will Be the Next in a Long Line of Stephen King Adaptations
More! Stephen!! King!!! Obviously, Andy Muschetti’s It led the pack for this most recent King revival (pun intended), and now the floodgates have opened. Netflix subsequently released Gerald’s Game and 1922, Mr. Mercedes came to the small screen, The Dark Tower finally made it’s long awaited onscreen debut last year, Jason Clarke is set to star in a reboot of Pet Sematary, and James Wan earlier this week locked down a deal to produce Tommyknockers. So here is the latest news in King movie land. New Line Cinemas has outlasted all the others for the rights to The Long Walk.
Written in 1979 under King’s penname, Richard Bachman, The Long Walk is a Hunger Games style dystopian novel. YA had not yet burst into popularity at the time, so while it features teens, the book is grisly and definitely fixed on an adult audience. In a not too distant future, one hundred young men are invited to participate in a contest where the prize is a lifetime of easy living. There can only be one winner and the catch is the other 99 participants are killed when they lose. The rules are to walk at four miles per hour and don’t stop until you’re the last man standing.
Slender Man producer James Vanderbilt snapped up the rights to the story after Frank Darabont’s hold on them lapsed. Darabont, of course, has been responsible for King gems The Green Mile and Shawshank Redemption as well as kicking off the monstrously successful (pun intended) The Walking Dead. Yet he never got the project into production, and while Darabont’s version would have been stellar, no doubt, we are excited for Vanderbilt’s enthusiasm. Vanderbilt had actually even written the script in the interim with the hopes of someday acquiring the rights.
Longtime collaborator Brad Fischer (Zodiac, White House Down) will partner with Vanderbilt on the project. The two worked together on White House Down and Truth among others.
We are loving this all new Stephen King library of shows and films. What could be next? We are placing our bets on Thinner based on no reason other than it’s in the half of Stephen King’s library that hasn’t seen a recent adaptation.
Featured Image: Stephen King promotes “Under The Dome” at the North Point Boulevard Walmart on November 11, 2009 in Dundalk, Maryland. (Photo by Larry French/Getty Images)
