There is often talk of what should be made into a film, and
in this case I'm referring to the adaptation of book as the source material
(as I watch many films remade, re-launched and rehashed to a lukewarm
response). I scream give me something new, that I know, BUT haven't seen!
When I was a much younger man I read
on the train every day as I made my way from school to work and
then home. I read feverishly but I was highly reluctant to read any Stephen King, a long forgotten
friend recommended one day that I try the works of his pseudonym Richard Bachman. I never
had any intention of following this up or doing so, but one day I found myself
in a second-hand book store and somehow gravitated to a copy of the Bachman books (for the ridiculous price of $5 NZ). I purchased it and started reading
the 4 stories enclosed, and although two stories had a great effect on me, one
had already been made into a film by that time, although poorly and unable to
hold a candle to
the source material, which was The Running Man, but it was the other story which held me captivated and forever contemplating a film adaptation, but obviously done well. And that other story was The Long Walk (written in 1979).
The Long Walk, in a nutshell, is set
in a Dystopian future that sees One Hundred teenage boys participate, by choice,
force or need, in an annual walking contest called, originally enough, The Long
Walk. The boys must maintain a constant and consistent walking speed of at
least 4 miles an hour, if they drop or lag they get a series of warnings before
they are ticketed, but as the story progresses being ticketed, they soon
discover to be ticketed is to be immediately shot by the soldiers who monitor the walkers. Our protagonist is a 16 year old boy by
the name of Raymond Garraty, and although there are multiple antagonists namely
fatigue, the soldiers and their superior (and event organiser) The Major, it is
the character of Gary Barkovitch who quickly establishes himself as an
extremely unlikable fellow walker. Anymore information would render this a
spoiler, so we can stop there.
I really think this would make an engrossing film, and although I wish I had an iota of the talent, I really wish I did as I
really don't know if I could write the emotion much
less direct it in a young actor. However, my lack of talent aside, I have known for sometime that regular
Stephen King adapter to film, Frank Darabont has had the rights to The Long Walk
for quite awhile, and in some accounts, from trawling the internet, it is suggested he's had them since and possibly before his adaptation of the Novella
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, better known to most as the film
The Shawshank Redemption starring Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman and the ever
impressive Clancy Brown (leading and amidst an amazing cast).
Knowing that Darabont has now done
3 theatrical King adaptations, which have all been rather stunning, I strongly
believe The Long Walk to be in safe hands, but I want to see it come to light.
Exhaustive Google searching has yielded very little information, but I did find
a little nugget a while back which has had me thinking for sometime about the
direction the film should take. The nugget was a line which read (and has since
been added to the Wikipedia page for the book since).
-
He (Frank Darabont) said that he would "get to it one
day". And that He plans to make it "low-budget, weird, existential,
and very self contained".
Not really a lot of information, but I
said it was a nugget, a glimmer of hope, but as I said this has had me thinking
for sometime about the direction of the film.
My Take:
There is an often under used
device, which can be jarring to the viewer, but that I think would suit this
adaption perfectly, and that would be to shoot the majority of the Raymond Garraty
footage in POV, in fact not even show the character until perhaps the second or
even third act. But further to why I think it could actually work well follows; You can
take or leave the works of "dynamic low budget duo" Mark Neveldine
& Brian Taylor, now you're either asking who the hell are they or if I
have completely lost my mind for even suggesting them, but it's a sound theory if they aren't left to write, direct and produce their own works. Their low budget
camera craft and angles are very sound and although both of the Crank films weren't cinematic genius and don't get me started on their take on The Ghost rider franchise, with
the "not as terrible as the first film, but pretty bad", Spirit of Vengeance. They are not destined for awards, but there are flashes of
genius in the camera and camera use not seen since Robert Rodriquez' El Mariachi. A perfect case in point would be the "bigger" budget film Gamer, although again with an appalling script and a terrible third act, the 'in
game' sequences work well and gave the film a glimmer of hope (before quickly
tearing it away).
For some unknown reason I cannot embed the following video, but a better example than the Trailer above:
The bleak nature of the source material matched with the camera style, and dark foreboding tone and feel of the Gamer in battle sequences cobbled with the digital low budget nature of the cameras and POV's (but MUCH tidier) used in the Crank films could actually result in a fantastic film when peered with the writing and directing brilliance of Frank Darabont, and could make for an eye-gasm of a film which would also generate a true emotive response for the audience, pending who is selected as editor obviously. And if you need a case in point for Darabont's directing, see what he got out of Thomas Jane (who is notoriously inexpressive in the majority of his roles) in the closing minutes of the often overlooked King adaptation The Mist. Even Stephen King himself said he wished he'd written Darabont's ending for The Mist (high praise).
It's
like a bucket list for the film if it ever sees the light of day, and although
my opinion doesn't matter, it's the conceptualisation of what could be if all
the planets were perfectly aligned etc... All I know is I've tried to write a
similar short story for me to shoot, but every time it gets a little too close
to plagiarism to the source material.
