Stephen King has revealed the demand he made for The Long Walk film adaptation, insisting the story had to remain “brutal.”
Directed by Francis Lawrence, best known for The Hunger Games franchise, and written by JT Mollner, the upcoming film adapts King’s 1979 novel set in a dystopian United States.
In the story, a group of young men compete in a deadly contest where they must maintain a speed of at least 3mph. Anyone who slows down or stops is executed, with the walk continuing until only one remains.
Speaking to The Times, King explained the context behind his writing. “The same sort of kids that are pulled into the war machine,” he said, reflecting on how the Vietnam War influenced the story.
He stressed the importance of showing the consequences of violence: “If you look at these superhero movies, you’ll see… some supervillain who’s destroying whole city blocks but you never see any blood. And man, that’s wrong. It’s almost, like, pornographic. I said, if you’re not going to show it, don’t bother. And so they made a pretty brutal movie.”
Although King pushed for a harsher tone, he also requested one adjustment. In his original novel, the walkers were required to keep a pace of at least 4mph. Reflecting on this, he admitted that speed was unrealistic.
Producer Roy Lee told ScreenRant: “Stephen only had one note from when we gave him the script. He’s like, ‘Can you change it from four miles per hour to three? Because that’s what was written in the book… there’s no way you could walk four miles an hour for that long.’”
The Long Walk will be released on September 12. Ahead of its premiere, promotional events included a “treadmill elimination” screening where viewers were required to walk for the film’s duration.
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