Frank Darabont still wants to film Stephen King’s novella
The Long Walk, and if there’s
anything right with the world, he’ll get to do it.
Set in a vague but obviously dystopian future, the story
is about an annual contest in which 100 randomly selected young male applicants
walk until only one is left. Most of the 99 failures are executed for flagging their
pace or other infractions. The winner gets whatever he wants for the rest of
his life. Which, given the rigors of the contest, which has no set end point
and could go on for hundreds of miles, might not be very long.
Darabont has been waiting to film the rather difficult
adaptation for years, and suggests the time may finally be right. “I really
love it, and I am going to make that in the next few years,” he told MTV.
Once I might have doubted Darabont’s ability to
streamline his style down to something unfettered enough to do right by a story
like this. But having seen The Mist (which is truly a fantastic
film, and a better one than Shawshank Redemption) I not only
believe Darabont can make this happen, I can’t wait to see him do it. The
Mist keeps Kings signature elements but plays up the social commentary
that Darabont, seemingly an increasingly angry guy, has valued in other films.
If The Mist makes money (and it really should) that could be proof that
Darabont has the chops to stand up to a narrative that’s Stand By Me, The
Running Man and Hands on A Hardbody rolled into one
four mile an hour crawl.
So go see The Mist. Get this sucker made.