After shattering box office records with their horror sensationIT, New Line is moving in anotherStephen Kingadaptation that’s been trying to make its way to screens for decades. This time, the studio will take on a title penned under King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman, the dystopian horror novelThe Long Walk.
Set not too far in the future, when America has become a perilous police state,The Long Walkfollows one hundred teenage boys who volunteer to participate in an annual contest where one winner will be awarded anything he wants for the rest of his life – the other 99 players will die. The rules are simple; don’t stop and keep your pace above four miles an hour. If you falter too long, you get a warning. If you get three warnings, you’re out. And by out, I mean dead.
Written under King’s pen name, with which he wrote some of his darkest, most unusual material,The Long Walkis a lean, mean piece of reading and perfect for a big screen adaptation. The new incarnation of the adaptation comes from filmmakerJames Vanderbilt, who’s penned scripts for everything fromZodiactoWhite House Down, and previously wrote and directed the 2015Cate BlanchettdramaTruth. Vanderbilt will also produce alongsideBradley FischerandWilliam Sherakvia their Mythology Entertainment production company.
King regularFrank Darabont,who previously adaptedThe Mist,The Green MileandThe Shawshank Redemption,held the rights and tried to get a film adaptation off the ground for years. PerTHR, Vanderbilt wanted to make the film for years, even penning a spec script without the rights, and once those rights slipped, the filmmaker moved in quickly and set the project up at New Line.
King’s library has proven a robust source for film and TV over the decades, and now is a particular popular moment for the horror maestro’s work following the blowout box office success ofIT, which went on to make more than $700 million worldwide. Paramount is readapting the classicPet Semataryand Universal just announced an adaptation ofTommyknockersfromJames Wan’s Atomic Monster. New Line is also moving full-speed-ahead onIT: Chapter 2, which is expected to kick off filming this summer.
Here’s the official synopsis forThe Long Walkvia Amazon.
“In this #1 national bestseller, “master storyteller” (Houston Chronicle) Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman, tells the tale of the contestants of a grueling walking competition where there can only be one winner—the one that survives.
In the near future, when America has become a police state, one hundred boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. Among them is sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty, and he knows the rules—keep a steady walking pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings and you’re out—permanently.”
