There are always multiple upcoming Stephen King movie and TV projects in development, and one of the most exciting adaptations currently in the works is the big screen take on The Long Walk. Unlike a lot of the author’s other novels, it is a King book that has never been adapted before… but not for a lack of trying. This new take, however, has successfully made it through the development and pre-production stages, and will be soon heading to a theater near you.
But what can audiences expect from The Long Walk? When is it coming out? Who is making it? I’ll answer all of those questions and more in this feature, and be sure to keep checking back in the coming weeks and months, as I’ll be adding updates as new details about the movie are revealed.
What Is The Long Walk Release Date?
Cameras started rolling on The Long Walk in late July 2024 up in Manitoba, Canada, with Lionsgate producing the film and set to distribute it domestically, but the studio has not announced an official release date or confirmed even a release year for the adaptation.
If it does end up becoming part of the cinematic calendar for 2025 (which seems very likely), it will be one of three Stephen King projects projected to arrive – the other two being the HBO IT prequel series Welcome To Derry and writer/director Osgood Perkins’ adaptation of The Monkey (which have both wrapped filming). That 12-month stretch may also see the release of Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck, which will premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival but doesn’t yet have a distributor and Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man, which starts principal photography in fall 2024.
What Is The Long Walk Story?
Originally published in 1979, The Long Walk is set in a dystopian America where the eponymous event is one of the nation’s most popular sources of entertainment. The competition sees a collection of 100 teenage boys compete in an endurance test with life-or-death stakes. The last boy standing wins cash and a dream prize, but those who are eliminated from the contest are killed.
The young competitors have to maintain a constant four mile per hour pace as they march along U.S. Route 1 starting at the Canada-Maine border. Slowing down or stopping results in a warning, though warnings can be cleared after a warning-free hour. If a walker collects three warnings and continues to fall behind, or if he tries to abandon The Long Walk at any time, he is shot by a member of the militarized secret police that organizes and monitors the event.
Protagonist Ray Garraty has a special edge on the other volunteers in the “game,” as he hails from Maine and is cheered on by spectators as a hometown hero. He gets to know the other boys to pass the time as they all walk, with everyone acknowledging everyone else as opposition, but as they continue, traumas stack up and they all begin to mentally crack.
The Long Walk has some special history in the Stephen King canon for multiple reasons. For one thing, while Carrie is remembered as the first King novel to be published, The Long Walk is the first one that he ever completed writing – having penned it when he was a freshman at the University of Maine (per the afterward in the collection Full Dark, No Stars). It’s also notably a part of the collection known as the Bachman Books: the tomes that King had published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman (the others being The Running Man, Road Work, Rage, Thinner, The Regulators and Blaze).
The Long Walk Cast Incudes Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Judy Greer And Mark Hamill
At the time of this feature’s publication, the various parts played by the cast of The Long Walk have not been confirmed, but there are certainly a lot of exciting names attached to the film.
Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson were the first two actors to signed on to the movie, with their deals being announced in June 2024. Hoffman, the son of the great Philip Seymour Hoffman, is best known for playing the lead in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, and Jonsson’s credits include the wonderful romantic drama Rye Lane and the Fede Álvarez’s sci-fi horror Alien: Romulus.
The supporting cast filled out a few weeks later with Deadline reporting the additions of Roman Griffin Davis (Jojo Rabbit), Charlie Plummer (Spontaneous), Garrett Wareing (Manifest), Tut Nyuot (Dark Money), Ben Wang (Mean Girls), Jordan Gonzalez (Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin), and Joshua Odjick (Welcome To Derry).
The biggest names in the ensemble are Mark Hamill and Judy Greer, who both have past Stephen King adaptation experience. Hamill has an uncredited role in Mick Garris’ Sleepwalkers (based on the first original screenplay King ever wrote) and has a key supporting part in The Life Of Chuck. Greer previous played gym teacher Ms. Desjardin in Kimberly Peirce’s 2013 remake of Carrie.
The Long Walk Is Being Directed By Francis Lawrence And Written By JT Mollner
Francis Lawrence knows a thing or two about adapting dystopian fiction, having sat in the director’s chair in the making of the last three Hunger Games movies, and he’ll be bringing his talents to the development of The Long Walk. Thanks to his time contributing to the Hunger Games franchise (most recently with the hit The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes), he has a long and positive relationship with Lionsgate. He first revealed he was working on the project in November 2023.
Teaming with the filmmaker on the Stephen King adaptation will be screenwriter JT Mollner, who has penned the script for The Long Walk as his follow-up to the 2024 horror movie Strange Darling (which he both wrote and directed).
Another prominent name behind the scenes of the upcoming film is producer Roy Lee, who optioned the rights to Stephen King’s book. The Long Walk will not be the first King adaptation that Lee has made, but instead, it is simply the latest. His other credits include Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep, Andy Muschietti’s IT duology, and the miniseries remake of The Stand that premiered in 2020.
The Long Walk Screenwriter Says The Film Won’t Be Pulling Any Punches, Will Be Rated R
Given that The Long Walk features teenagers participating in what is essentially a suicide by death march, a proper adaptation would be a seriously disturbing cinematic experience… and audiences should start girding themselves now, because that’s exactly what we are going to get. In an interview with CinemaBlend in July 2024, JT Mollner confirmed the movie will not be “pulling any punches” in bringing King’s book to the big screen. He said:
The great thing about this is that Francis [Lawrence], this is a true… I mean, it’s not a low-budget movie, but it’s not as big of a budget as he normally works on with big franchises like the Hunger Games and stuff. So this is a true passion project for him. He wanted to do it the right way, a faithful way. And he knew that meant it was gonna be a very hardcore, disturbing and somewhat controversial movie. And that’s the movie I was interested in writing. Stephen King also was very committed and determined for Francis to make a rated-R film, one that honored the book and stayed true to the book.
It would be impossible to properly bring The Long Walk into live-action without it being an adults-only big screen event, and that is what Francis Lawrence and JT Mollner are making together.
As noted earlier, I’ll continue to update this feature as we get closer and closer to the release of The Long Walk and learn more about where it will fit in the long legacy of Stephen King adaptations. Stay tuned for news here on CinemaBlend, and you can keep track of all the scary movies that are heading to theaters and streaming with our Upcoming Horror Movies guide.