Last year, an adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Long Walk (which was, like The Running Man and Thinner, published under the pen name Richard Bachman) went into production, with director Francis Lawrence, whose previous credits include Constantine, I Am Legend, Water for Elephants, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Parts 1 and 2, Red Sparrow, Slumberland, and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, at the helm. Now, Lawrence has confirmed to the folks at Collider that post-production work on the film is almost complete, and he’s “super happy” with it.
An adaptation of The Long Walk has been trudging through development hell for decades. At one point, the rights were in the hands of Frank Darabont, who made the King adaptations The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist. Then the rights passed over to New Line Cinema, where Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark director André Øvredal was hired to direct the film from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt, whose credits include the two most recent Scream movies. While doing the press rounds for his film The Last Voyage of the Demeter last year, Øvredal revealed that he was no longer involved with The Long Walk, and said not making that movie is one of the big regrets of his life.
Strange Darling writer JT Mollner has written the screenplay for the version of The Long Walk that’s being made. The novel is set in a future dystopian America ruled over by a militaristic dictator, and the titular event is an annual contest in which 100 teenagers must keep a steady pace of at least four miles an hour under strict rules until only one of them is left alive. The winner receives “The Prize”: anything they want for the rest of their life. The story follows Raymond Garraty, a 16-year-old from Pownal, Maine, as well as a group of other teenagers with good, bad, and mysterious intentions.
Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza), David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus), Garrett Wareing (Ransom Canyon), Tut Nyuot (The Witcher: Blood Origin), Charlie Plummer (National Anthem), Ben Wang (American Born Chinese), Jordan Gonzalez (Pretty Little Liars: Summer School), Joshua Odjick (Welcome to Derry), and Roman Griffin Davis (Jojo Rabbit) star in the film alongside Judy Greer (the Halloween and Ant-Man franchises) and Star Wars legend Mark Hamill, who just recently finished working on another King adaptation called The Life of Chuck.
Lawrence is producing the film through his company about:blank, alongside Roy Lee, Cameron MacConomy, and Steven Schneider. Meredith Wieck and Erin Jones-Wesley are overseeing for Lionsgate. Filming took place in rural locations throughout the province of Manitoba.
When Collider asked Lawrence about the project, he said they’re about to compose the score and, “The cut is for the most part locked. I’m really happy with it. I think it’s really unique. It’s one of — if not my favorite — Stephen King novels. It was something that actually crossed my desk years ago, not long after I finished Constantine. It was when I was doing I Am Legend, and I wanted to do it, but Frank Darabont actually scooped up the rights. People have tried to make it over the years, and never could. We just kind of cracked it; I worked with JT Mollner, who did Strange Darling. He wrote a great draft, and it came together really quickly. I had this window, and we hit the right season to shoot it, and we put together an amazing cast. The cast is so good and the performances are great. I’m super happy with it.“
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