Get a first look at The Long Walk with newly released images showcasing an unrecognizable Mark Hamill

Last year, an adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Long Walk (which was, like The Running Man and Thinner, published under the pen name Richard Bachman) went into production, with director Francis Lawrence. 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 Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark director André Øvredal was hired to direct the film from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt, whose credits include the two most recent Scream movies.

Last month, Francis Lawrence, Mark Hamill and star David Jonsson were all present for the Lionsgate panel at CinemaCon. A trailer was shown that our own Chris Bumbray (who was in attendance) called “insanely intense.” Now, Vanity Fair gives us a new look at the dystopian film with a fresh batch of new images. The source material from Stephen King was deemed too merciless to film at one point, as King’s story seemed too cynical. Although the story lends itself to political symbolism during the Vietnam War, King admits he wasn’t aiming to give it that kind of layer. He stated to Vanity Fair, “You write from your times, so certainly, that was in my mind. But I never thought about it consciously. I was writing a kind of a brutal thing. It was hopeless, and just what you write when you’re 19 years old, man. You’re full of beans and you’re full of cynicism, and that’s the way it was.”

Strange Darling writer JT Mollner has written the screenplay for the version of The Long Walk that has been made. The novel 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.

Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza), David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus), Garrett Wareing (Ransom Canyon), Tut Nyuot (The Witcher: Blood Origin), Charlie Plummer (National Anthem), Ben Wang (American Born Chinese), Jordan Gonzalez (Pretty Little Liars: Summer School), Joshua Odjick (Welcome to Derry), and Roman Griffin Davis (Jojo Rabbit) star in the film alongside Judy Greer (the Halloween and Ant-Man franchises) and Star Wars legend Mark Hamill, who just recently finished working on another King adaptation called The Life of Chuck.

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