The Long Walk, one of Stephen King’s oldest un-filmed published works, will arrive in September in wide theatrical release. In The Long Walk, 100 young men participate in a walk down US Highway 1. It is a death march for 99 participants and a dream come true for the lone survivor. These contestants are to keep up a pace of three miles per hour or risk a warning. Three warnings, and the attending military patrol will shoot the straggler dead. The intense trailer created plenty of buzz.
This dystopian story naturally draws comparisons to The Hunger Games and The Running Man. It uses the concept of desperation meeting an authoritarian government that promotes this march as sadistic entertainment for a live TV audience. The novella was originally published under King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman . King fans clamored for this property to be filmed for many years. The Long Walk has been described as one of King’s most despairing works, which, given his track record, is certainly saying something.
The movie has an intriguing cast of up-and-coming young actors, plus it stars one bona fide movie legend.
- Cooper Hoffman, the son of the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman, plays Raymond Garraty, the film’s central protagonist.
- David Jonsson, who recently starred as the android Andy in Alien Romulus, plays Peter McVries, Garraty’s determined friend.
- Ben Wang, who will be the star of this year’s Karate Kid: Legends will be the cocky Hank Olson.
- Charlie Plummer plays Gary Barkovich, a dangerous and intense walker who clashes with the other competitors.
- Garrett Waering is the skeptical Stebbins, who also happens to be the son of…
- Mark Hammill (Star Wars) plays the Major, the adventure’s villain, overseeing the application of the lethal rules of the Long Walk. Yeah, him. We get to watch Hamill play a horror movie villain!
The Production of The Long Walk
This movie was originally a project for which frequent King collaborator Frank Darabont (The Mist, The Green Mile) held the production rights through New Line Productions. In 2018, New Line lost the rights to the project to Lionsgate, who initially hired André Øvredal (Trollhunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe) to direct the film. Instead, The Long Walk was given to Strange Darlings writer JT Mollner to adapt King’s book. Lionsgate brought Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence on to direct the picture. It took a while to produce this film, so will it be worth the long wait?
Other critics describe The Long Walk as a Young Adult story, which is not surprising given the characters’ ages and the similarity to The Hunger Games. However, the newly released trailer suggests something much gnarlier. The film has not yet been rated, and it will be interesting to see if it receives a more accessible PG-13 rating or a more horror-appropriate R rating. The trailer received plenty of buzz for the visceral intensity. When it arrives on September 12, the concept could be a big box office draw if it understands its demographics correctly.