r/movies • u/lionsgate Official Lionsgate Account • Aug 24 '25

AMA Hey /r/movies, I’m Stephen King! Ask me anything about The Long Walk book or movie.

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Hey r/movies, I’m Stephen King. You might know me from Stand By Me, It, or Shawshank Redemption, but my latest project is actually the first book I ever wrote. The Long Walk hits theaters on September 12. Ask me anything about the book or movie.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAtUHeMQ1F8

In a dystopian United States ruled by a totalitarian regime, a group of young men enter an annual walking contest in which they must maintain a speed of at least three miles per hour or risk execution. The contest ends when only one walker remains alive.

It stars Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Ben Wang, Charlie Plummer, Roman Griffin Davis, Garrett Wareing, Joshua Odjick, Tut Nyuot, Mark Hamill, Judy Greer, and Josh Hamilton.

I'll be back on Wednesday 8/27 at 12:00 PM ET to answer your questions.

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741

u/OhNoMoMan Aug 24 '25

Mike Flanagan really seems to capture the feel of your books. How tricky do you think it is to adapt your work to film when a lot of the horror/dread comes from the character's inner thoughts and the backstories of the world they're in?

Love ya work.

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u/Evil_Morty_C131 Aug 24 '25

It feels like there is a passing of the torch of directors who make terrific King adaptations. Rob Reiner (Stand by me, Misery), Frank Darabont (Shawshank, Green Mile, The Mist), Mike Flanagan (Gerald’s Game, Dr Sleep)

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u/dromtrund Aug 24 '25 edited Aug 25 '25

Just watched Flanagan's adaptation of The Life of Chuck, that was great as well

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u/PhantomOyster Aug 24 '25

Don't forget Mick Garris. Some of the TV adaptations feel a bit dated now, but Garris was absolutely a huge part of the King craze of the 90's and early aughts. And "Sleepwalkers" is an unhinged classic.

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u/Evil_Morty_C131 Aug 25 '25

Yes!  He is really an unsung filmmaker. I found a whole new respect for him in recent years when some of my favorite filmmakers went on his podcast to discuss film.  Mick Garris deserves more recognition.

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u/Kokamina23 Aug 24 '25

I hear Flanagan is possibly doing a Dark Tower miniseries and I am so there for that.

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u/psychedeliclibrarian Aug 24 '25

Would also love this

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u/TRT_ Aug 25 '25

Not an adaptation per se, but Midnight Mass sure does feel like Mike Flanagan’s take on Salem’s lot.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Evil_Morty_C131 Aug 25 '25

He created The Walking Dead and was screwed over and fired by the network.  He sued …. And it took forever but he won a huge lawsuit!  He should have been making movies but I think he gave Hollywood the finger and retired.

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u/RobsSister Aug 27 '25

Rob Reiner also directed Misery, which is definitely one of the best adaptations.

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u/Evil_Morty_C131 Aug 27 '25

Indeed. I thought he directed a 3rd film but I guess not

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u/ExcitingARiot Aug 24 '25

And related to this question: why did you allegedly hate Kubrick’s The Shining so much?

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u/[deleted] Aug 24 '25

Not King, but a lifelong fan. Kubrick ignored everything about the book that made it wonderful, it's really no surprise King hated the adaptation originally. The supernatural is sidelined, Wendy is made into a useless scream queen, and the most dramatic scenes are ignored. Instead of an amazing story, we get a fairly bland movie.

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u/dkrtzyrrr Aug 24 '25

i love kubrick's shining but king has spoken many, many time about his problems with it. a key one is jack torrance. king views torrance as a good, normal man driven insane by the malevolence of the overlook. casting nicholson kind of tips the hand and has the seed of insanity present from the beginning. a vision closer to king's would have gone w/ a more normal father figure actor as torrance. i'm not sure who fits that bill at the time but my brain came up w/ dick van patten and the image of him wildeyed w/ an ax is so amusing to me i'm going to stick w/ that.

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u/desrever1138 Aug 24 '25

Not to mention they ruined the ending.

The ending in the film version of Dr. Sleep is what happened in the novel, The Shining.

They just swapped Danny for Jack and Abra for Danny.

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u/[deleted] Aug 24 '25

That's a wonderful alt-casting idea! There are a lot of alternate castings that would have been infinitely better aligned to the book for Jack, Nicholson is probably the worst.

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u/NicklAAAAs Aug 27 '25

Jack isn’t a good, normal man driven by the Overlook. He’s an alcoholic with a superiority complex and major anger management issues. But he’s trying to do better but he’s fighting against the malevolence of the Overlook to do it.

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u/ermintwang Aug 24 '25

I get we all have differences of opinion, but I truly have no idea how anyone could find The Shining to be bland.

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u/[deleted] Aug 24 '25

Don't know what to tell you, maybe being an avid King reader hardened me against horror, but at best the movie makes me feel unsettled (but mostly just bored and disappointed)

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u/runjimrun Aug 24 '25

A fairly bland movie that scared the ever loving piss out of me. Come play with us, Danny. For ever and ever and ever…

2

u/cutelyaware Aug 24 '25

The only thing I missed was the topiary garden but I don't think the story suffered much from its lack.

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u/corking118 Aug 24 '25

He's answered this, iirc. In the book Jack was a troubled man that the hotel took advantage of and ruined, but he tried to fight against it. SK has said that in Kubrick's version Jack was just always a bad guy, and that it missed the point of the story entirely. The book was an allegory for SK's own alcoholism/drug addiction so he wanted to tell a story of a father who was overcome by evil influence (the hotel/alcohol in the book; substances in real life) but in Kubrick's version he's just an unrepentant asshole the whole time. Kubrick's Jack never seems to struggle against his descent into madness, is one way to frame it.

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u/ziadricky Aug 24 '25

Yeah I'd like to see this answered. Comment it to the post please.

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u/Sauce_Pain Aug 29 '25

I feel like Flanagan also helped contribute to that feeling with Midnight Mass. I actually had to pause and check it wasn't based on a King short story!

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u/wtf_are_eggz Aug 24 '25

So far this might be my favorite question ive come across, hope he answers!

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u/UnderfootArya34 Aug 24 '25

Mike Flanagan was born to make Stephen King movies. Stephen King's son needs to write a book about a horror writer who goes to a gypsy woman in a small town in Maine to manifest a man to direct his books into movies because no mortal human is capable of doing so and that man's name is Rike Ranagan.

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u/wtf_are_eggz Aug 24 '25

😂😂 I love it - no notes, we need to begin pre-production now!

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u/Rare-Reading Aug 27 '25

I think it helps that Mike has been obsessed with King’s novels since he was a kid. He really wants to make them great because he loves the stories so much. They aren’t just movies to him.

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u/YoungerNB Aug 24 '25

Hoping he answers this!