André Øvredal on his upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s The Long Walk

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

One of the many, and I do mean many, upcoming adaptations of Stephen King's work will be THE LONG WALK, a dystopian film which follows 100 teenage boys embarking on an annual competition. It was announced last month that SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK director André Øvredal had signed on to helm the film based on a script by James Vanderbilt (ZODIAC), and Øvredal recently spoke with Rue Morgue about the adaptation.

The novel, which Stephen King wrote under his Richard Bachman pseudonym in 1979, is set in a future dystopian America ruled over by a militaristic dictator, and the "Long Walk" is an annual contest in which 100 teenagers must keep a steady pace of at least four miles an hour under strict rules until only one of them is left alive. The winner receives "The Prize": anything they want for the rest of their life. "The Long Walk" follows Raymond Garraty, a 16-year-old Pownal, Maine, as well as a group of other teenagers with good, bad, and mysterious intentions. André Øvredal believes that the tale is filled with relatable themes.

In a way, the book is about the long walk of life. You watch your family and friends die around you as you go through life, and there’s a human connection there to the horror these kids are experiencing that goes way beyond the smaller story going on right in front of you. As a director, it’s extremely inspiring to be able to tell a story that is so human and so gruesome at the same time. It’s like man vs. the machine in a way, and about the innocence of these boys and how they don’t really grasp what they’ve gotten themselves into until it’s way too late. I’m in awe of Stephen King for having understood so much about humanity at the age of 18 or 19 when he wrote this. It’s an adult story, but written with a young person’s perspective, probably of the Vietnam War; it’s kind of an allegory, I’m guessing, for his fears of being sent to Vietnam at the time.

"Therefore, it also reads as a story about people you get to know in extreme circumstances," Øvredal continued. "I can compare it to filmmaking as well; it’s a similar situation where you get thrown in with people you don’t really know, but you have some of the most extreme moments of your life with these people, and then suddenly they’re gone and you move on to the next movie, and you rarely have the same crew. You shoot one movie in Toronto and the next in Europe. So there are a lot of things in THE LONG WALK to connect with emotionally." Although the the entirety of THE LONG WALK will take place outdoors, Øvredal says that it will have a confined sense of horror. "It’ll be very claustrophobic, because we never leave that road. I think the studio and producers really liked my work on THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE, and compared it to this, because it’s very intimate," Øvredal explained. "You’re walking right there with these kids; the fact that it has an expansive nature around it, as opposed to just walls, is a variation, but it’s going to be an extremely claustrophobic movie."

A synopsis of "The Long Walk" via Amazon:

Against the wishes of his mother, sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty is about to compete in the annual grueling match of stamina and wits known as The Long Walk. One hundred boys must keep a steady pace of four miles per hour without ever stopping…with the winner being awarded “The Prize”—anything he wants for the rest of his life. But, as part of this national tournament that sweeps through a dystopian America year after year, there are some harsh rules that Garraty and ninety-nine others must adhere to in order to beat out the rest. There is no finish line—the winner is the last man standing. Contestants cannot receive any outside aid whatsoever. Slow down under the speed limit and you’re given a warning. Three warnings and you’re out of the game—permanently….

André Øvredal's SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK, an adaptation of the Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell series of short-stories, is set for an August 9, 2019 release.