Long-Awaited Stephen King Adaptation Gets Grim Update

The long-awaited adaptation of Stephen King’s The Long Walk just got a very disappointing update. André Øvredal, who had previously been attached to direct the film, recently told Collider that he is no longer attached to the project. The filmmaker went on to say that not getting to make The Long Walk is one of the big regrets of his life. Øvredal’s next project, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, is set to open in theaters on August 11th.

“I’m unfortunately not,” Øvredal said when asked if he was still attached to The Long Walk, “but it’s one of the big regrets in my life to not have made that movie.”

Øvredal had previously been announced as the director for the film back in 2019, teasing at the time that the film would be “very claustrophobic”.

“It’ll be very claustrophobic, because we never leave that road,” Øvredal said at the time. “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.”

“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.”

What is The Long Walk About?

The Long Walk was first published in 1979 under the pen name Richard Bachman and centers around a group of 100 teenage boys who are forced to march across the country by a militaristic dictator. If a boy falls below a certain speed, or falters in any other way, they are in danger of being shot dead by soldiers riding alongside the road. The novel particularly centers around 16-year-old Raymond Davis Garraty whose life is turned upside down by the contest.

Øvredal Had Previously Cited COVID-19 as Complicating the Film’s Progress

Prior to this confirmation from Øvredal that he is no longer involved in the film, the filmmaker’s last update was back in 2020 when he told ComingSoon that the pandemic was a major factor in complicating progress on the film but assured that it was alive and well.

“COVID is just wrecking everything,” Øvredal said and added that the project is “alive and well and moving along.”

At this point, it’s unclear what’s next for The Long Walk. The novel is one that has a long history of adaptation attempts. Previously, Frank Darabont, who directed the King adaptations The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist, had been attempting to develop the film and held exclusive rights to an adaptation. James Vanderbilt had previously written drafts of an adaptation, even without the actual rights, so when Darabont lost the rights, the project was revived with New Line Cinema.

Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for updates on what’s next for The Long Walk.