By MICHAEL GINGOLD
JT Mollner’s STRANGE DARLING galvanized the horror scene last year, winning praise from Stephen King among many others. And by the time it was released, Mollner’s next project was already deep into production: the film version of THE LONG WALK, which he scripted based on King’s 1979 “Richard Bachman” novel. Mollner discusses King, translating his prose cinematically and more in our exclusive chat.
Directed by Francis Lawrence, THE LONG WALK has hit theaters following its own long path to production, which has involved a number of other directors (from Frank Darabont to André Øvredal). It follows Ray Garraty (Cooper Hoffman) as he takes part in the titular contest in an America run by a totalitarian regime. He’s one of 50 young men literally walking for their lives down an interstate highway; tracked by soldiers in military vehicles, they face brutal death if their speed drops below three miles an hour more than three times. Also starring David Jonsson (ALIEN: ROMULUS), Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang and Mark Hamill as the Major overseeing the trek, THE LONG WALK emphasizes the relationships and conflicts that emerge between the boys, punctuated by moments of shocking violence. (You can read more of this interview in RUE MORGUE #226, now on sale.)
After directing your own screenplays, how was it writing for another filmmaker?
I had anticipated it would be, not adversarial, but I thought that in writing for another director, which I had never done before, there would be moments when I would be frustrated or felt shackled or something, but we were totally on the same page. Francis had tremendous notes and helped me get the first draft to where it needed to be. I had some ideas that I was nervous about sharing with him, and he wound up loving them and we incorporated them. It was really a great process. I love directing and I’m compelled to write, so writing isn’t as “fun” for me as directing, but I can definitely say I’d love to write for Francis again. He made such an emotional film; it’s not just about blood and guts, even though it was important to us that that was not shied away from.
The film remains generally faithful to the book, though the characterizations of the walkers have been changed or combined in some cases. Was that an essential part of the adaptation process?
You know, a lot of people call THE LONG WALK a short story; they think it is because they first read it in those BACHMAN BOOKS collections and it’s one of four stories in there. But it’s not; those are just high-density pages with a lot of words in one book–and it’s not even a novella, it’s a full-length novel. So instead of including every character and every exchange, which we knew we couldn’t do, we wanted to focus on retaining the core of the book, and a lot of the characters were combined or transformed a little bit.
There’s a point during the writing process [on adaptations] where you just get rid of the novel–at least, I have to. After reading it so many times–you have to read it over and over and over again, kind of like an actor learning a script–at some point, you have to leave it behind and just let the characters speak for themselves. There was a point when I was writing THE LONG WALK when the characters started doing that, and I was hoping there was some connective tissue between the people in my script and those in the book. And then at the end, of course, I went back and read the book again to see how far we’d deviated, and it felt pretty good to me; it felt like there was a nice balance. And Francis did an amazing job keeping that. You really feel like you’re in the Kingverse.
There’s more diversity in the walkers than there is in the novel; was the script written that way, or was that more just a matter of casting the best people for the parts?
It was more the latter, as I remember. There was no specificity there; we just wrote characters, and then Francis cast the movie with who he saw in those roles. And I think he cast it beautifully.
Stephen King gets an executive producer credit on THE LONG WALK; how much was he involved?
That would be a good question for Francis; I’m sure he might know more than I do. For me, I know that he was very involved. I’m not sure what the legality was around it, but I know that none of us were going to go shoot the movie unless he liked the script. He definitely had to approve it, and said he liked it, which was one of the great days of my life. Once we were shooting, I was only there for a few weeks of prep and the first bit of principal photography. But I believe he did interact with Francis a bit. He has directed a movie, so he knows what it takes, and he’s written so many movies and so many books, and the beauty of Stephen King is that once he approves the filmmakers and approves the material, he kind of gets out of the way and allows them to make the movie. It doesn’t mean he won’t pop in and give you his opinion, but he’s very, very respectful of our process, which is something he doesn’t have to be, at his level.
Do you know how he feels about the way THE LONG WALK turned out?
Secondhand, I heard that he did see the movie, and that he called Francis to congratulate him, and tell him he was very pleased. That was a very exciting day for us.
Do have a favorite Stephen King film, or one that you feel especially got the adaptation right?
My favorite book and favorite movie would be different, but there are a few, for various reasons. I have a real soft spot for STAND BY ME; I grew up watching that, and there was a lot of influence there. We drew on that a lot for THE LONG WALK. I think THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION is a beautiful movie, and Frank Darabont has done a tremendous job with Stephen King’s material, also with THE MIST. That’s one of the great adaptations of Stephen King’s horror writing. It does have a different ending, which Stephen famously said he liked, which is so cool, that he lacks that sort of ego. I recently saw THE LIFE OF CHUCK, by Mike Flanagan, and I was blown away; I thought it was absolutely gorgeous. And it’s really interesting that we got to work with Mark Hamill in a very different sort of role than he plays in LIFE OF CHUCK.
Three of the films you cited aren’t horror films, and in a sense, THE LONG WALK is more of a drama with moments of horrific violence than a flat-out genre movie. Was genre on your mind while you were scripting it?
It wasn’t on my mind at all, and that’s how I work. When I was writing STRANGE DARLING, I wasn’t thinking about that, but I know it became a genre movie and that’s what it’s supposed to be. I love that about Stephen King; I love his horror, and I also love his dramatic work. And I think the reason his horror is so strong is because the dramatic work is so powerful within that. Even in his most high-concept horror, whether it’s CUJO–which I just reread, and it’s potentially my favorite book of his–or THE INSTITUTE, or anything he’s done, there’s always such deep character development and relationships. That’s always the priority, even if you go back to his early stuff like CARRIE, and that’s why when the horror happens, when the violence happens, it works.
I learned that from Stephen King, so as a writer and as a filmmaker, I always want to think about character, relationships and story, and then the themes will rise to the surface. On THE LONG WALK, we weren’t thinking about the genre, and it is a genre film, but it’s also a character piece and a drama.
And now you’re set to direct a film version of THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON. Do you have any other projects in the works?
It’s always been my dream to adapt THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON. It’s my mom’s favorite book, and it had been on my wish list for a long, long time. I’ve also got a new, original film that I’m working on, that we’re developing and figuring out, and some other stuff I’ve been cooking up that I don’t think I’m allowed to talk about yet. I’ve got a bunch going on, and I’m looking forward to being in the director’s chair soon.
