Movies
André Øvredal Talks Stephen King Adaptation ‘The Long Walk’; “An Extremely Claustrophobic Movie”
Announced this past May, New Line is bringing Stephen King‘s novel The Long Walk to the big screen, with André Øvredal (Trollhunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) tapped to direct the adaptation. First published in 1979 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, The Long Walk is set in future dystopian America ruled by an authoritarian.
In the terrifying tale, “The country holds an annual walking contest in which 100 teens must journey, non-stop and under strict rules (you stop… you die), until only one of them is still standing alive and receiving a prize. The story told of a 16-year old walker named Raymond Garraty and the teens, some good, some bad, some mysterious, in his orbit.”
Speaking with Rue Morgue, Øvredal teased his “claustrophobic” adaptation of the novel.
“In a way, the book is about the long walk of life,” Øvredal told the site. “You watch your family and friends die around you as you go through life, and there’s a human connection there to the horror these kids are experiencing that goes way beyond the smaller story going on right in front of you. As a director, it’s extremely inspiring to be able to tell a story that is so human and so gruesome at the same time. It’s like man vs. the machine in a way, and about the innocence of these boys and how they don’t really grasp what they’ve gotten themselves into until it’s way too late.”
He continued, “It’ll be very claustrophobic, because we never leave that road. I think the studio and producers really liked my work on The Autopsy of Jane Doe, and compared it to this, because it’s very intimate. You’re walking right there with these kids; the fact that it has an expansive nature around it, as opposed to just walls, is a variation, but it’s going to be an extremely claustrophobic movie.”
In addition to Leigh Whannell’s upcoming Universal Monsters movie Wolf Man, Julia Garner (The Royal Hotel) has also joined the cast of Weapons, THR has announced tonight.
Weapons is the new horror movie from New Line Cinema and director Zach Cregger (Barbarian), with Julia Garner joining the previously announced Josh Brolin (Dune 2).
The upcoming Weapons is from writer/director Zach Cregger, who will also produce alongside his Barbarian producing team: Roy Lee of Vertigo and J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules of BoulderLight Pictures. Vertigo’s Miri Yoon also produces.
The Hollywood Reporter teases, “Plot details for Weapons are being kept holstered but it is described as a multi and inter-related story horror epic that tonally is in the vein of Magnolia, the 1999 actor-crammed showcase from filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson.”
Cregger was a founding member and writer for the New York comedy troupe “The Whitest Kids U’Know,” which he started while attending The School of Visual Arts. The award-winning group’s self-titled sketch comedy show ran for five seasons on IFC-TV and Fuse. He was also a series regular on Jimmy Fallon’s NBC series “Guys with Kids” and the TBS hit series “Wrecked,” and was featured in a recurring role on the NBC series “About a Boy.”
Weapons will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.
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