This won’t sound too surprising to TV and movie aficionados, but no shortage exists of upcoming Stephen King adaptations. Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise will return in Welcome To Derry, and The Life Of Chuck might just make you dance with joy as the world crumbles. Then there’s the head-scratching reality of Mike Flanagan working on a new Carrie series and the realization that we might never see a proper The Dark Tower series.
Well, that was a roller coaster of emotions, and we haven’t even talked about The Long Walk yet, so let’s get down to business on what to expect.
Trailer
It feels appropriate to begin here with a recently released trailer for the sheer shock value. Indeed, the abrupt shift in mood from competitive camaraderie to sheer horror hits hard. And yes, that’s Mark Hamill as the Major.
Plot
If the film’s premise sounds like the predecessor to Suzanne Collins’ Panem-set book series, you’re not wrong, and Lionsgate leaned into those similarities by hiring The Hunger Games helmer Francis Lawrence as director.
King published The Long Walk under his Richard Bachman pseudonym in 1979, and the novel takes place in a police state, in which 100 boys compete to essentially hike until their legs fall off. It’s a walk-off to the death, and the original book description set the stage for how the winner “will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life.” A very simple rule holds that each contestant must walk no slower than four miles per hour at all times, and three warnings add up to a fatal punishment.
As you can see in the above photo, the Major looks to be the most frightening, pants-wetting character that Mark Hamill has ever portrayed.
Francis Lawrence recently spoke with IGN and called The Long Walk “one of my favorite” King books. He explained that with this film (and for the first time for him), he shot chronologically, which helped the actors settle into their roles as the story’s sense of doom grew:
“And what I realized that the important thing is in this, again, is the camaraderie, as it’s the heart of the story. … I have to really focus on the characters and what the characters are going through physically, psychologically, emotionally with one another, seeing the degradation over time and over days and after nights and when the group’s whittling away.”
He added that this approach took “a toll,” physically speaking and more:
“I think somebody clocked in that, in the movie, they walk like 336 miles over 4 or 5 days or something, and we walked probably close to 350 miles making the movie. I will say I think that was good for the actors and they really embraced it. But what was fascinating, and this actually really mirrors the characters, these are young men and with not fully formed frontal cortexes, right?”
Lionsgate has also provided a brief description that promises an “intense, chilling, and emotional thriller that challenges audiences to confront a haunting question” while also asking, “[H]ow far could you go?
Cast
In addition to Mark Hamill as the Major, The Long Walk stars Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson ^^^ along with Judy Greer, Ben Wang, Charlie Plummer, Garrett Wareing, Roman Griffin Davis, Tut Nyout, Jordan Gonzalez, and Joshua Odjick.
Release Date
Lionsgate will release The Long Walk into theaters on September 12.