What i find amazing is how many great books I have read in my life that have never ever been put on film, yet Hollywood keeps making horrible remakes and pans them off to a younger generation when the original was far superior in every way. I recall a Stephen King novella called "The Long Walk" written under the pseudonym "Richard Bachman" that would have been a fantastic movie and launched the career of more than a few young actors. Yet Hollywood will do "Transformers" time and time again with the same damn storyline and spend 300 milloion to do, yet "The Long Walk" could be made for 1.5 million and gross 50-100 million easy.
Story of "The Long Walk" is every year 100 boys between 10-18 are picked in a lottery to walk. The Rules are you have to walk on average 4 miles per hour, if you don't you get a warning, each warning is good for 30 seconds or you get another one, so if you stop and don't get up to 4mph in 31 seconds you get two warnings and have to walk two hours at 4 mph or faster to lose the warnings. if you have 3 warnings on the fourth your shot where you stand. If you walk faster than 4mph for an hour you can lose a warning. Last one standing wins whatever he wants for life. The story gets going when a small band of boys all team up and they share their life stories, hopes and dreams about what they would do with winning and the heartbreak from some of the stories on why some of the boys are walking and the sadness when a friend gets his "final ticket" They have to battle the fatigue, blisters, cold nightfalls, muscle spasms, hunger, thirst, bowel movements (hey you either walk with it or stop and get a warning) adoring fans who impede their constant walking of 4mph. Just a great story. It's a nationally televised event and gambling is encouraged on who wins, when somebody gets shot, who will cross a certain checkpoint and so on. They talk about who is wearing what kind of shoes, who is starting to wander off course (warning number 32 warning) who is sleep walking and what members choose to help or not help another walker. I can see Frank Durabant (Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile") doing this one.
