The Film Adaptation of Stephen King's THE LONG WALK Will Now Be Directed by Francis Lawrence

The Hunger Games franchise director Francis Lawrence has signed on to direct the upcoming film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Long Walk. He replaces André Øvredal, who had previously been developing the film for years. But, he left the project last year.

Business Insider broke the news that the I Am Legend and Constantine director is now on board to helm the project. Lawrence said in an interview with them, "I'm now attached to The Long Walk, the Stephen King book. Very excited about that.”

While I would have liked to see Øvredal’s version of the film, I’m sure that Lawrence will make a solid adaptation.

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 is a great dystopian story, and it actually served as inspiration for several other YA dystopian books over the years like The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner, so Lawrence should easily click with the material.

Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist) was also attached to the project at one point, but after he lost the rights, James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) wrote a script, and New Line Cinema ended up picking it up. I believe this film is still working off of that script.