New Line has tapped André Øvredal to direct the movie adaptation of Stephen King’s (Richard Bachman) dystopian thriller “The Long Walk.”

My husband is a big Stephen King fan, and after I finished THE HUNGER GAMES series and forced him to read these great books, he saw the connection between them before HUNGER GAMES author Suzanne Collins confirmed the inspiration. I was instructed that I now had to read them, and boy was that a good time. Mr. King even gave gave a favorable review to THE HUNGER GAMES in Entertainment Weekly in 2008. Some call it a rip off, but it isn’t. THE LONG WALK It is a marvelous dystopian thriller that you really should read before they make this film.

From VARIETY:

The novel is set in the near future and centers on 100 teenage boys embarking on an annual competition known as “The Long Walk,” during which participants must maintain a walking speed above four miles per hour. If they receive three warnings in an hour, they are shot dead. The last one walking gets whatever he wants for the rest of his life. The boys develop deep friendships despite knowing that each of their friends’ survival is a threat to their own.

Under the pen name Richard Bachman, Stephen King began work on this short story back in 1966, while he was still  a student at the University of Maine, and then he published it in 1978. It is 384 pages that I wish was much longer. Time to read it again

No word on when this film will start production, but now that they have Andre, it should be soon! I’ll keep you updated if you keep reading WBNQ.com!

Susan Saunders 5/22/19