Stephen King's Own Version Of The Hunger Games Is Going To Become A 'Hardcore' Horror Movie

In the dystopian future, a group of youths partake in a wildly popular, and very deadly, competition that's become a major source of entertainment. Sounds like "The Hunger Games," right? Well, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about "The Long Walk," Stephen King's nasty 1979 novel published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Now, I'm not saying "The Hunger Games" is a rip-off of "The Long Walk," but there are definitely major similarities — which is probably why Francis Lawrence, the helmer of several "Hunger Games" movies, has been hired to bring "The Long Walk" to the screen. 

Lawrence is by no means the first filmmaker attached to this project. At one point, the legendary George A. Romero wanted to turn "The Long Walk" into a movie. Later, Frank Darabont, who directed the Stephen King movies "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Green Mile," and "The Mist," was attached to helm. Eventually, like Romero, Darabont left the project. In 2019, André Øvredal, who directed "The Autopsy of Jane Doe," "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark," and the "Dracula on a boat" movie "The Last Voyage of the Demeter," was hired to direct, but he, too, parted ways with the material. 

It genuinely seemed like "The Long Walk" would never be made. But now, it appears that Lionsgate is full-steam ahead with the adaptation. Filming on the project began in July, and we've recently learned that the cast includes Cooper Hoffman, Mark Hamill, and Judy Greer. The film's script was penned by J.T. Mollner, who wrote the buzzworthy upcoming horror movie "Strange Darling." Mollner recently spoke with Cinemablend about "The Long Walk," and he painted a pretty exciting picture. Based on what Mollner had to say, "The Long Walk" is going to be a brutal, disturbing movie that doesn't shy away from the book's ultra-dark subject matter. 

While "Carrie" is the first novel Stephen King published, "The Long Walk" is actually the first novel he wrote. King penned the book in the mid-60s while he was a student at the University of Maine. "I submitted ["The Long Walk"] to the Bennett Cerf/Random House first-novel competition ... in the fall of 1967 and it was promptly rejected with a form note ... no comment of any kind. Hurt and depressed, sure that the book must really be terrible, I stuck it into the fabled TRUNK, which all novelists, both published and aspiring, carry around," King said.

King would hold onto the manuscript until 1979, when it was published under his pseudonym Richard Bachman. The book is set in a bleak future in which 100 teenage boys enter a competition known as the Long Walk. The rules: the boys must continuously walk along U.S. Route 1. They must stay above 4 miles per hour. If any boy drops below 4 MPH for more than 30 seconds, they get a warning. If a boy gets three warnings, they're shot dead. The competition goes on for miles and miles and multiple days. The winner is the last boy standing, and he is awarded a prize of their choosing. As you might imagine, it's dark, nasty stuff, and lots of kids die along the way. 

None of this sounds like it would make for an overly upbeat film, and screenwriter J.T. Mollner confirms as much. Mollner says "The Long Walk" is going to be "faithful" and "a very hardcore, disturbing and somewhat controversial movie." He says that both Stephen King and director Francis Lawrence were committed to making an R-rated film, adding: "We didn't really pull any punches. Most of the stuff that you remember being tough to take in the book still exists ... And even the studio notes that came in and, and the feedback from everybody, everybody was on the same page as far as staying true to the brutality and the seriousness of the book." 

All of this sounds really promising, and I hope everyone sticks to their guns here and delivers a disturbing horror movie that lingers with the viewer. There's no release date for "The Long Walk" just yet, but filming is expected to wrap in September.