You’d have thought Stephen King adaptations were one of the easiest things to get made in Hollywood, seeing as there are currently dozens of the author’s novels, novellas, and short stories in the works for film and television, but The Long Walk just can’t seem to drag itself out of development hell.
Originally published in 1979, the story unfolds in a dystopian future America, where a ruthless dictator oversees the nation with an iron fist, with an annual walking contest designed to break hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits at the center of the narrative. For whatever reason, though, nobody seems to be able to get it off the ground.
Zombie maestro George A. Romero was the first to give it a try, having attempted to convince King he was the right man for the job as far back as 1988. Two decades later, and The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist‘s Frank Darabont was attached, before that too fell through the cracks to never be heard from again.
In early 2019, horror master André Øvredal signed on to direct The Long Walk, but as he revealed to CinemaBlend, he’s not going to be the one to bring it to the screen, either.
“Yeah, no, I love that book. I love that project. I’m not part of it anymore, which I’m very sad about, but I think in a way I was lucky to get on [The Voyage Of The Demeter] basically instead.”
Maybe the pieces will fall into place one day, but for now, The Long Walk is quietly securing a status as one of those rare Stephen King stories that can be deemed as “unfilmable,” albeit for very different reasons to the rest.
Published: Aug 4, 2023 10:56 am