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The Long Walk headed to big screen
New Line Cinema, which made the big-screen version of Stephen King’s It, is staying in the King business, setting its sights on adapting his novel The Long Walk.
James Vanderbilt, who was behind the Robert Redford-Cate Blanchett drama Truth, has written the script to adapt the book, which King wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
Vanderbilt will also produce with Bradley Fischer and William Sherak. Mythology Entertainment is the company behind the project and the company's Tracey Nyberg will executive produce.
First published in 1979, Long Walk is set in a future dystopian America ruled by an authoritarian. The country holds an annual walking contest in which 100 teens must journey, non-stop and under strict rules, until only one of them is still standing alive to receive the prize. The story told of a 16-year-old walker named Raymond Garraty and the teens — some good, some bad, some mysterious — in his orbit.
Setting up the project is a culmination of over a decade’s work for Vanderbilt and Fischer. The two are fans of the book and were keen to bring it to the screen, but it was in development for years with writer-director Frank Darabont, who previously made the King-based projects The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and The Mist. Vanderbilt even wrote his initial drafts on spec several years ago, without having the screen rights. Those rights finally left Darabont, allowing the duo to pounce and bring them to New Line.
King is a hot commodity, thanks to the unexpected smash success of 2017's It, which grossed $700 million worldwide. Paramount is remaking Pet Semetary, while his book The Tommyknockers just got set up at Universal with James Wan and Roy Lee producing after generating a bidding war.
Vanderbilt made a name for himself writing such action blockbusters as the Amazing Spider-Man movies and White House Down before making his directorial debut with 2015's Truth, an intimate drama about the news story that cut short the career of Dan Rather. He is repped by WME.
James Vanderbilt, who was behind the Robert Redford-Cate Blanchett drama Truth, has written the script to adapt the book, which King wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
Vanderbilt will also produce with Bradley Fischer and William Sherak. Mythology Entertainment is the company behind the project and the company's Tracey Nyberg will executive produce.
First published in 1979, Long Walk is set in a future dystopian America ruled by an authoritarian. The country holds an annual walking contest in which 100 teens must journey, non-stop and under strict rules, until only one of them is still standing alive to receive the prize. The story told of a 16-year-old walker named Raymond Garraty and the teens — some good, some bad, some mysterious — in his orbit.
Setting up the project is a culmination of over a decade’s work for Vanderbilt and Fischer. The two are fans of the book and were keen to bring it to the screen, but it was in development for years with writer-director Frank Darabont, who previously made the King-based projects The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and The Mist. Vanderbilt even wrote his initial drafts on spec several years ago, without having the screen rights. Those rights finally left Darabont, allowing the duo to pounce and bring them to New Line.
King is a hot commodity, thanks to the unexpected smash success of 2017's It, which grossed $700 million worldwide. Paramount is remaking Pet Semetary, while his book The Tommyknockers just got set up at Universal with James Wan and Roy Lee producing after generating a bidding war.
Vanderbilt made a name for himself writing such action blockbusters as the Amazing Spider-Man movies and White House Down before making his directorial debut with 2015's Truth, an intimate drama about the news story that cut short the career of Dan Rather. He is repped by WME.
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André Øvredal To Direct Stephen King’s ‘The Long Walk’ For New Line
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark director André Øvredal is set to direct New Line’s feature adaptation of Stephen King’s The Long Walk.
James Vanderbilt wrote the screenplay and is also producing with Bradley Fischer and William Sherak.
Øvredal is the critically acclaimed, award-winning director of the mystery thriller The Autopsy of Jane Doe. His horror pic,Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, co-written and produced by Guillermo del Toro, opens August 9 from CBS Films.
The Long Walk is one of three King adaptations in the works at New Line. The others include Salem’s Lot and It: Chapter Two, the sequel to 2017’s $700.3 million global blockbuster It which became the highest-grossing horror film of all time. It: Chapter Two opens September 6.
Øvredal is repped by WME, Industry Entertainment, and Adam Kaller & Duncan Hedges. Vanderbilt is repped by WME, UFUSE Management and McKuin Frankel Whitehead.
[Director Andre Ovredal] recently revealed what audiences can expect from the adaptation and how it differs from other King projects.
“It’ll be very claustrophobic, because we never leave that road," Ovredal shared with Rue Morgue. "I think the studio and producers really liked my work on The Autopsy of Jane Doe, and compared it to this, because it’s very intimate. You’re walking right there with these kids; the fact that it has an expansive nature around it, as opposed to just walls, is a variation, but it’s going to be an extremely claustrophobic movie.”
The Autopsy of Jane Doe explored a father and son team of morticians who began to investigate a woman's body in their morgue, only for supernatural occurrences to begin to unfold. With his film Trollhunter, a group of documentary filmmakers chronicled a man who was tasked with vanquishing the fantastical creatures, creating another intimate experience.
Despite the dystopic premise, the story unfolds in a relatively grounded way. Ovredal detailed what he feels the story truly represents, which will likely be reflected in his vision.
“In a way, the book is about the long walk of life,” the director noted. “You watch your family and friends die around you as you go through life, and there’s a human connection there to the horror these kids are experiencing that goes way beyond the smaller story going on right in front of you. As a director, it’s extremely inspiring to be able to tell a story that is so human and so gruesome at the same time. It’s like man vs. the machine in a way, and about the innocence of these boys and how they don’t really grasp what they’ve gotten themselves into until it’s way too late."
He added, "I’m in awe of Stephen King for having understood so much about humanity at the age of 18 or 19 when he wrote this. It’s an adult story, but written with a young person’s perspective, probably of the Vietnam War; it’s kind of an allegory, I’m guessing, for his fears of being sent to Vietnam at the time."
>>> Source
Too bad, Darabont is no longer interested in doing it.
Director André Øvredal signed on to direct an adaptation of The Long Walk all the way back in 2019, and he provided an optimistic update about the project in late 2020, but the latest development isn’t anywhere near as positive. Speaking with the filmmaker last month during the virtual press day for his new movie, The Last Voyage Of The Demeter (in theaters August 18), I asked if there were any updates about his in-the-works Stephen King project, and he provided the sad news:
While it’s possible that things are still being worked on behind the scenes, André Øvredal’s The Long Walk isn’t a movie that’s being made, and with that downer of an update, my fear rises that we will never get to see an adaptation made – which is too bad because the book is brilliant.
>>> Source