KING OF THE ROAD

DIRECTOR FRANCIS LAWRENCE TAKES A BREAK FROM THE HUNGER GAMES TO ADAPT THE LONG WALK, STEPHEN KING'S BRUTAL TALE OF ANOTHER GAME OF DEATH SET IN A DYSTOPIAN FUTURE.

- WORDS: JAMIE GRAHAM

WHEN FRANCIS LAWRENCE (Constantine, the last four Hunger Games movies) was working on his 2007 adaptation of Richard Matheson's classic post-apocalyptic horror novel I Am Legend, his producer, Akiva Goldsman, slipped him a copy of The Long Walk.

The book, written by Stephen King in his freshman year at college, 1966-1967, was one of five novels that the bestselling horror author went on to publish under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. Set in an ultraconservative America of the future, it tells the gruelling tale of 100 young men (50 in the movie) participating in the ultimate sports competition – a 450-mile marathon in which the contestants must maintain a speed of 4mph. Drop below, and you're issued a warning, which is expunged if you then walk for an hour at speed. Creep up to three warnings and you're shot dead on the spot. The winner is the last man standing, and he himself can decide on his prize.

“Akiva gave me a copy, and I fell in love with it,” says Lawrence. “It became probably my favourite King book, and one of my favourite books. It always stuck with me.” Naturally, he looked into the film rights, but fellow King fan Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Mist) had got there first, so that was that. All Lawrence could do was pass on his love of the novel to his youngest son (“He's a big reader... I gave it to him, it's one of his favourite books”) and get on with his career. “Then, weirdly, it came back around maybe 17/18 years later,” he grins. “I saw my son's copy laying on a shelf, and I thought, 'I wonder what's going on with The Long Walk'? That same day, I got a call from Roy Lee, who's my producing partner on this, saying he had got the rights and would I want to make the movie? I was like, 'Wow, that's so strange!'”

CASTING THE NET

One of the few King novels to have not been made into a movie,