In November of 2023, news hit the Richard Bachman novel “The Long Walk” would be adapted into a feature film by Francis Lawrence. Richard Bachman is a pseudonym used by Stephen King to publish other novels after his career took off. Lawrence, meanwhile, has a lot of experience with turning books into films, given he’s the man behind the camera for most of “The Hunger Games” movie franchise. Now, we’re getting to see the marriage of story and visuals come to life as “The Long Walk” gets its first trailer.
The trailer drops us into the middle of a group of boys who are calmly talking and eventually start walking down the road. Mark Hamill as the Major, reminds them of the history and honor of the “The Long Walk” that they’ll be partaking in. Only, this is not some pleasure stroll or innocent competition. This is, almost akin to “Hunger Games,” a life or death matter. If your pace drops below three mile an hour, you “get your ticket.” In this dystopian world, that means you get killed. 100 walkers, no finish line, the walk is over when there’s only one person left.
The source novel is the second King published under his Bachman pseudonym, and his sixth overall. In some ways, this 1979 novel was the progenitor of these deadly reality games that we see in “Squid Game,” “Battle Royale,” and the aforementioned “Hunger Games.” The novel is simple but effective plot carries over with Lawrence focusing on what really are the focal points of the struggle; the boys and the road ahead of them.
Along with Hamill, we also get to see Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson as Raymond Garraty and Peter McVries respectively, the two walkers the books spends the most time with. We get a hint the film is going to be brutal, as at one point, we see one of the boys trying to walk on a foot that is warped at a terrible angle. It’s a simple kind of brutality that the novel excelled in, and will probably not be for the faint of heart.
There is no current release date for “The Long Walk,” but it is expected for sometime later year. We’ll update you when we hear more. Until then, if you want to check out the novel to prepare for the film, you can find it either as part of “The Bachman Books” collection, or as an individual novel. Fair warning, it may put you off of walking for a while. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
