The Long Walk: André Øvredal won’t be directing the Stephen King adaptation

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark director André Øvredal’s latest film, the Dracula tale The Last Voyage of the Demeter, reached theatres last weekend (you can read our review HERE), but unfortunately it didn’t get off to a great start at the box office, pulling in just $7 million. That’s not the only disappointing news there is to share about an Øvredal project, as the director has also revealed that he is no longer attached to an adaptation of The Long Walk, a Stephen King novel that was published under the Richard Bachman pen name back in 1979.

An adaptation of The Long Walk has been trudging through development hell for decades. At one point, the rights were in the hands of Frank Darabont, who made the King adaptations The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist. Then the rights passed over to New Line Cinema, where Øvredal was hired to direct the film from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt, whose credits include the two most recent Scream movies. Now it seems the project has slipped back into the darkness.

When asked if he’s still working on The Long Walk during an interview with Collider, Øvredal answered, “I’m unfortunately not, but it’s one of the big regrets in my life not to have made that movie.“

The Long Walk is set in a future dystopian America ruled over by a militaristic dictator, and the titular event 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 story follows Raymond Garraty, a 16-year-old from Pownal, Maine, as well as a group of other teenagers with good, bad, and mysterious intentions.

The Long Walk is a harrowing read that would make for a hell of a movie in the right hands, but it’s easy to understand why it’s proving to be such a difficult story to bring to the screen. It’s young boys walking until they drop of exhaustion, one by one, and being executed. It wouldn’t exactly be an uplifting time at the movies.

Are you a fan of The Long Walk, and are you disappointed to hear that André Øvredal is no longer attached to direct the film adaptation? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

Øvredal recently said that a sequel to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is still in development.