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Stephen King Demanded ‘The Long Walk’ Show Teens Getting Shot: “A Pretty Brutal Movie”

Francis Lawrence's R-rated adaptation of Stephen King's novel features a brutal endurance contest with 100 teens, emphasizing psychological survival and realistic violence, rated for strong bloody content.

  • The Long Walk, a dystopian horror thriller film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Cooper Hoffman, premieres in the United States on September 12, 2025.
  • The film adapts Stephen King's 1979 novel about 100 young men forced into an endurance contest where failure to keep pace results in execution by soldiers.
  • Stephen King personally required the film to realistically depict teenagers being shot, criticizing bloodless violence in superhero movies as "almost, like, pornographic."
  • JT Mollner, the screenwriter, said he preserved King's original themes and graphic elements, and Lionsgate screened the film's first 20 minutes at Comic-Con.
  • The film's release, with an R rating for strong violence among other reasons, suggests a commitment to King's brutal vision and may impact audience expectations.
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Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence has shot with his Stephen King adaptation The Long Walk – Death March much more than just a tougher version of The Tributes of Panem.

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Salon broke the news in San Francisco, United States on Sunday, August 31, 2025.
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