The Film Adaptation of Stephen King's THE LONG WALK Will Be "Hardcore, Disturbing, and Controversial"
The Hunger Games franchise director Francis Lawrence is currently directing a film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Long Walk, and this is a seriously jacked-up story.
The Long Walk takes place in the future “in which 100 teenage boys embark on an annual competition known as ‘The Long Walk.’ The rules are simple: maintain a speed above four miles per hour. Receive three warnings in an hour and you’re shot dead.
“The last one walking gets whatever he wants for the rest of his life. Under these grim circumstances the boys develop deep friendships despite knowing that each of their friends’ survival is a threat to their own.”
This story is absolutely brutal and I’ve been wondering if they will tone it down for the movie, but it sounds like the creative team is going all out on this one.
During a recent interview with The King Beat, the film’s writer, JT Mollner, teased that this movie is going to go hardcore as the creative team made an effort to capture the darkness of King’s book.
Mollner said: “The great thing about this is that Francis, this is a true... I mean, it's not a low budget movie, but it's not as big of a budget as he normally works on with big franchises like the Hunger Games and stuff.
“So this is a true passion project for him. He wanted to do it the right way, a faithful way. And he knew that meant it was gonna be a very hardcore, disturbing and somewhat controversial movie.
“And that's the movie I was interested in writing. Stephen King also was very committed and determined for Francis to make a rated R film, one that honored the book and stayed true to the book.”
He continued: “We didn't really pull any punches. Most of the stuff that you remember being tough to take in the book still exists. And there are some tweaks made to update it that I think are smart… But I'm very happy with the adaptation as a Stephen King fan.
“I'm really happy with what we did with it. And even the studio notes that came in and, and the feedback from everybody, everybody was on the same page as far as staying true to the brutality and the seriousness of the book.”
I’m happy to hear that this film adaptation will be true to the book and that the creative team isn’t going to shy away from some of the brutal content and subject matter. I’m excited to see how this turns out!