New Line And Zodiac Writer Taking On Stephen King’s ‘The Long Walk’

 
After years of being in possession of Frank Darabont, the filmmaker behind the King adaptations The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and The Mist, the movie rights for Stephen King’s The Long Walk is now possessed by New Line.
New Line has brought on James Vanderbilt, the writer of 2007’s Zodiac and Independent’s Day: Resurrection, who wrote the script before the rights were even acquired. He will also produce alongside William Sherak. Tracey Nyberg of Mythology Entertainment will executive produce the film.
The Long Walk, written under King’s pen name Richard Bachman, is set in “a future dystopian America ruled by an authoritarian. The Country holds an annual walking contest in which one hundred teens must journey, non-stop and under strict rules, until one of them is still standing alive to receive the 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.”
The Long Walk is not the only Stephen King adaption New Line is working on, they are currently in development on IT: Chapter 2. There are also several other King adaptions in production including Universal’s The Tommyknockers, Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep, Paramount’s Pet Sematary which recently cast Jason Clarke in the lead role of Louis Creed, and In the Tall Grass co-written by King and his son Joe Hill.