Stephen King's The Long Walk is 'challenging' for filmmaker

Andre Ovredal loves the "huge challenge" of adapting 'The Long Walk' for the big screen.

The 'Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark' filmmaker is also at the film of the upcoming take on Stephen King's unique horror novel, and he admitted the story - which is focused on a deadly cross country walk - has given him plenty to thing about.

He told DailyDead: "What I find so amazing about that one is that it's a challenge, an incredible challenge for a director because I have nothing to hide behind.

"It's actors, a camera, and the dialogue of the script. It's just a walk and talk, and I've got to create suspense and intensity and the performances have to be great.

"So, to me, it's a really huge challenge and I can't wait to do it because it's breaking new ground for me as well."

'The Long Walk' was originally published back in 1979 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, and it was the first novel King wrote.

The novel follows a group of 100 teenage boys forced to march across the country by a militaristic dictator.

If anyone falls below a certain speed - or even just falters at all - they could be shot by soldiers riding alongside them.

Previously talking about his approach to the adaptation, Ovredal described it as "very claustrophobic".

He explained: "It'll be very claustrophobic, because we never leave that road.

"I think the studio and producers really liked my work on 'The Autopsy of Jane Doe', and compared it to this, because it's very intimate.

"You're walking right there with these kids; the fact that it has an expansive nature around it, as opposed to just walls, is a variation, but it's going to be an extremely claustrophobic movie."