First look at Stephen King adaptation he deemed too 'merciless' to film

The Long Walk was the first novel Stephen King wrote at 19. The book wasn't published for another 12 years, and has had countless failed attempts at being turned into a movie, which King puts down to its 'merciless' storyline.

Inspired by the rising body count of young American men killed in the Vietnam War, the dystopian story follows a group of young men on a life-or-death marathon with no set finish line.

“I think maybe what held it back in those other adaptations is that merciless quality,” King says [via Vanity Fair]. “Somebody putting down the money for it must’ve been, like, ‘I don’t know…this is hard. This is a painful one.’”

'The Long Walk' hits movie theatres September 12.

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