Stephen King + The Hunger Games: After 45 years, fans of the author will finally have this movie adapted from one of his best novels

While The Hunger Games: The Ballad of the Serpent and Songbird are currently in theaters, director Francis Lawrence already has a new project in the works. The film director is adapting the novel by Stephen King sink or swimPublished in 1979 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.

The book tells the story of a hundred teenagers who take part in a long march from Maine to the South. The rules for this live-televised forced march are simple: don’t interfere with other protesters, don’t leave the road or stop, under penalty of a warning. Three strikes and you’re dead. The march stops when only one survivor remains.

And if the story sounds oddly reminiscent of The Hunger Games, that’s okay, because this dystopian novel inspired novelist Susan Collins when she envisioned The Hunger Games. Francis Lawrence – to whom we owe 4 of the 5 films in the Hunger Games saga – is therefore ideally suited to direct a film that has been planned for many years.

A novel that has never been adapted for film

In 2007, Frank Darabont, who had already worked on adaptations of the horror master’s novels Les Evadés and La Ligne Verte, was announced to be writing, but the film was ultimately shelved.

A few years later, the project landed between an email from New Line entrusting production to Andre Ovredal (The Last Voyage of Demetrius) and a letter to James Vanderbilt (Spider-Man, Scream 5). But in the summer of 2022, New Line loses the adaptation rights.

Lionsgate, already the owner of the rights to Susan Collins’ books, therefore bought them and commissioned JT Mollner to adapt the novel, which had never before been adapted for the screen.

in a press release received by The Hollywood ReporterJoe Drake, president of Lionsgate, was delighted to find Francis Lawrence:

“When you have the creative collaboration and success we’ve had working with Francis, you want to replicate that experience as much as possible. We couldn’t be more excited to have Francis back for The Long Walk. Truly unparalleled. The talent“.

We don’t know yet when the filming will take place, but Francis Lawrence Already has a busy schedule after being announced as the director of Constantine 2 alongside Keanu Reeves and attached to Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the BioShock video game franchise.

Is waiting, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of the Snake and the Bird Visible in dark rooms.