The Long Walk: trailer for the Stephen King adaptation was shown at CinemaCon

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, whose previous credits include Constantine, I Am Legend, Water for Elephants, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Parts 1 and 2, Red Sparrow, Slumberland, and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, at the helm. Now, the first trailer for the film has been shown to the audience at the CinemaCon event, and JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray was there to see it!

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. While doing the press rounds for his film The Last Voyage of the Demeter last year, Øvredal revealed that he was no longer involved with The Long Walk, and said not making that movie is one of the big regrets of his life. 

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.

Lawrence is producing the film through his company about:blank, alongside Roy Lee, Cameron MacConomy, and Steven Schneider. Meredith Wieck and Erin Jones-Wesley are overseeing for Lionsgate. Filming took place in rural locations throughout the province of Manitoba.

Bumbray reports that the trailer shown at CinemaCon was “insanely intense.” Hoffman and Jonsson are the leads. The story is set in a military state and whenever someone stops walking they are killed. If you walk under three miles an hour you die. Have to walk until only one person is left. Hamill looks like a great bad guy, and Hoffman and Jonsson’s acting looks amazing. 

Lawrence, Jonsson, and Hamill were all present for the Lionsgate panel at CinemaCon. Lawrence said The Long Walk is his favorite Stephen King novel and he had been trying to get the film rights for twenty years. The heart of the movie is it’s about the brotherhood and camaraderie between the men, which is different than Hunger Games. They have to prop each other up. Jonsson revealed that the movie was shot consecutively and the cast walked between ten and fifteen miles a day. Jonsson seemed super star struck by Hamill. Hamill said, “Well, I’ve never worked with facehuggers. On my bucket list.” Bumbray reports that Jonsson charmed the audience, as he was very modest and seems excited about the film, which will be a great follow-up to Alien: Romulus for him. The actor said the hardest part of doing them movie was, as Hamill is the antagonis, they had to hate him and the actors, staying in character, didn’t want to meet him, even though they found him extremely likeable and they all wanted to hang out with him. Hamill loved playing the bad guy and joked that, since he’s also the bad guy in the new SpongeBob movie, he’s a bad guy for all generations. Hamill was wearing sunglasses throughout the presentation, but said he only did so because that’s what his character does.

The Long Walk is set to reach theatres on September 12th. Are you more excited for the movie after hearing about the CinemaCon presentation? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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