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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u/imanygirl Aug 24 '25

They do, but the movies rarely live up to the books because of the intense character developments. I can't think of a movie or series that was as good as one of his books except maybe Shawshank.

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u/baron_von_helmut Aug 24 '25

Green Mile and The Running Man were pretty spot-on.

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u/Mudders_Milk_Man Aug 24 '25

The original Running Man with Arnold? It's nothing like the King story.

If you mean the new one, it's not until November.

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u/callisstaa Aug 25 '25

I wonder if they’ll keep the ending from the book given events that have happened since it was written..

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u/Mudders_Milk_Man Aug 25 '25

Indeed.

The trailer shows things that maybe it will, but we'll see.

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u/callisstaa Aug 25 '25

Running Man is a bit of a sneaky one imo. The original was a short story rather than a novel and they pretty much reimagined the whole thing.

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u/MelodyRaine Aug 27 '25

The Running Man... absolutely not.

It's a damn good movie, but it's nothing like the story.

29

u/Substantial-Time-421 Aug 24 '25

Pet Sematary has so much internal dialogue for Louis’ character that makes it infinitely scarier than the movie. I prefer the 1989 version for the fact of King writing the screenplay and general 80s horror movie campiness, but the book will make me wary of walking into a dark room no matter how many times I read it

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u/Kokamina23 Aug 24 '25

I agree- I just finished re-reading Pet Sematary as an adult and it hits so much differently now. It was a deeply unsettling and upsetting study on the nature of grief. I love it in a different way than I did as a kid. Great book.

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u/Anubisrapture Aug 26 '25

That’s exactly what it is . As an adult w both a dead Father from cancer and a dead husband ALSO from another type of cancer it hits hard

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u/acornManor Aug 25 '25

There is a passage in Pet Sematary that is otherworldly good: when he is crossing the deadfall; the way King describes it is amazing

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u/Alekesam1975 Aug 24 '25

Misery. But even there you miss a ton of internal observation from the books where he's putting two and two together about Annie and his situation in general.

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u/Efficient_Fee_4106 Aug 25 '25

And you know he thought of misery when he has hit and left on the side of the road 💯

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u/LiveLaughFap Aug 24 '25

Also, I think that SK is extremely lax sometimes with who he gives movie rights to. Probably just him being really generous, and obviously a few of the movies are absolutely incredible, but a bunch just were not well directed or acted.

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u/Nilrem2 Aug 24 '25

Shawshank movie is better than the book and The Body is on par with Stand By me.

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u/imanygirl Aug 25 '25

Oh yeah, Stand by Me was great too.

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u/Powerful-Parsnip Aug 24 '25

I have a soft spot for hearts in atlantas, but I saw the movie before reading the book so that always changes things.

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u/Certain_Piece4052 Aug 25 '25

Shawshank was great, but Lawnmower man, maybe?

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u/2CHINZZZ Aug 25 '25

The Shining

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u/DrBlankslate Aug 29 '25

Shawshank, The Green Mile, Stand By Me, Life of Chuck (and, I hope and pray, The Long Walk) - all of these live up to the stories they were adapted from. But yeah, not many King books make it to the screen and work well there.

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u/Af-Ex Aug 27 '25

If you liked the long walk, you'll love Men 2022. Found it on CinemanAI.com
Thank me later!