Stephen King’s ‘The Long Walk’ Getting Film Adaptation

Another week, another announcement that a Stephen King story is being developed into a feature film, with The Long Walk being the latest of the author’s novels to move forward into the development stage. James Vanderbilt will be writing the screenplay with New Line Cinema, who produced last year’s IT, helping bring the film to life.

As The Hollywood Reporter describes the story, “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.”

The Long Walk is one of many stories that King published under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman, which also includes The Running Man, Thinner, and Blaze.

The novel was originally released in 1979 and Frank Darabont, who directed the adaptations The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist, had been attempting to develop the film and held exclusive rights to an adaptation. 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.

Last week it was announced that King’s The Tommyknockers would be getting a new adaptation with The Conjuring and Insidious director James Wan attached as a producer. Much like IT, The Tommyknockers also previously had a miniseries adaptation in the ’90s with this new approach offering a larger production value for a familiar story. That adaptation is slated to hit theaters in 2020.

In 2019, audiences will get a new adaptation of Pet Sematary from directors Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch, a novel which previously earned a film in 1989. That film is slated to hit theaters on April 19th, while September 6, 2019 will see the release of the sequel to IT, which begins shooting this summer.

Later this year, fans will get to see the debut of Castle Rock on Hulu, a series which focuses on King’s iconic town that is tangentially connected to many of his famous stories, while also getting the second season of Mr. Mercedes on the Audience Network.

Stay tuned for more details about The Long Walk.

Are you looking forward to checking out this new adaptation? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

[H/T The Hollywood Reporter]