Stephen King is having quite a year with no less than four adaptations of his work, including two features already released based on short stories, The Monkey and The Life of Chuck, with two more movies on the way, based on his earlier work under the pseudonym “Richard Bachman.”
In fact, this weekend’s The Long Walk is based one of her King’s very first written novels, eventually released under the Bachman name in 1979, showing a dystopian future in which young men from each state volunteer to take part in a grueling marathon with the winner receiving a large sum of money. The idea is that these 50 young men need to maintain a walking pace of three miles per hour, and if they fall below it, they get three warnings and then are killed. The sole survivor is the winner, being granted a wish by Mark Hamill’s The Major, the military leader who instituted “the long walk.” The film’s main protagonist is Cooper Hoffman’s Raymond Garraty, who is taking part in the walk to help his single mother (Judy Greer), forming a bond with a few other boys, including David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus), Ben Wang (Karate Kid: Legends), and Tut Nyuot. The film also stars Charlie Plummer, Garrett Wareing, and Joshua Odjick.
The Long Walk is directed by Francis Lawrence, who has more than his share of experience with dystopian futures, from The Hunger Games sequels and Will Smith’s I Am Legend. What’s interesting is that the adaptation was done by JT Mollner, who got a lot of attention last year for his action-thriller, Strange Darling, so adapting King’s book for another director was an interesting decision.
Cinema Daily US had a chance to speak with Mollner about the process of how he came onto the project, his relationship with King and Lawrence during the process, and a few tidbits about his upcoming projects, including an adaptation of King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, which he’ll direct. (NOTE: If you’ve read the original novel, The Long Walk, there’s a rather vague possible spoiler at the 14:25 mark of the video interview above.)
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Director: Francis Lawrence
Screenwriter: JT Mollner
Cast: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Mark Hamill, Judy Greer, Ben Wang, Charlie Plummer, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Jordan Gonzalez, Joshua Odjick
Producer: Roy Lee, Cameron MacConomy, Steven Schneider, Francis Lawerence
Production Co: Vertigo Entertainment, Lionsgate
Distributor: Lionsgate
Rating: R (Strong Bloody Violence|Grisly Images|Suicide|Pervasive Language|Sexual References)
Genre: Thriller, Drama
Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): September 12, 2025
Runtime: 1 hour, 48 minutes
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You can watch the trailer below: