Posted in: Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: stephen king, The Long Walk

The Long Walk: Stephen King Had Exactly Condition For The Film

Author Stephen King had exactly one condition regarding the big screen adaptation of The Long Walk.

When it comes to violence on the big screen, there are usually some things that studios often shy away from because they know the audience reaction will be so negative that it isn't worth it. There is a reason DoesTheDogDie.com exists and has existed for a couple of years now; some lines people don't want to cross, and many films avoid those lines to cast the widest net. One of those lines is violence against kids and teenagers. A lot of horror movies that have teenage victims will cut to black or shy away from the violence, even in movies where they are given an R-rating and don't need to. Obviously, there are exceptions, but more or less, studios try to avoid killing kids and teenagers and showing said killing in all of its violent glory. Then there's a story like The Long Walk.

Author Stephen King has never shied away from violence against children and teenagers; see IT and Carrie as two of the biggest examples that have big screen adaptations. They don't shy away from violence either, but both stories are linked to supernatural creatures that don't exist and couldn't ever exist. There is something about realistic violence that hits different, and King knew that going into the adaptation of The Long Walk. In an interview with The Times, King revealed that "his only condition for the film adaptation was that we see the teenagers being shot." Well, considering we can't even post the above clip and you need to go to YouTube to watch it, we'd say that Lionsgate honored that condition.

"If you look at these superhero movies, you'll see … some supervillain who's destroying whole city blocks but you never see any blood," King said. "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."

Well, exploitation films and torture porn are two genres of films that exist, and there are probably going to be people who think the sheer brutality that occurs during the events of The Long Walk might step over that line into exploitation. As King explained, "I want readers to feel just tense and totally carried away by the story." That's certainly one way to do it. There have been a lot of adaptations of King's works in the last couple of years, with two of them coming out before the end of this year. Some are good (and usually directed by Mike Flanagan), others not so much, but considering King's commitment to writing 1200 words six to seven days a week, Hollywood had a damn near endless supply of stories to adapt for movies or television. 

The Long Walk: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

From the highly anticipated adaptation of master storyteller Stephen King's first-written novel, and Francis Lawrence, the visionary director of The Hunger Games franchise films (Catching Fire, Mockingjay – Pts. 1 & 2, and The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes), comes The Long Walk, an intense, chilling, and emotional thriller that challenges audiences to confront a haunting question: how far could you go?

Lionsgate presents, in association with Media Capital Technologies, a Vertigo Entertainment / about:blank production, The Long Walk, directed by Francis Lawrence, screenplay by JT Mollner, based on the novel by Stephen King. The Long Walk stars Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Roman Griffin Davis, Jordan Gonzalez, Joshua Odjick, Josh Hamilton, with Judy Greer and Mark Hamill. It will be released in theaters on September 12, 2025.

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