Announced this past May, New Line is bringing Stephen King‘s novel The Long Walk to the big screen, with André Øvredal (Trollhunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) tapped to direct the adaptation. First published in 1979 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, The Long Walk is set in future dystopian America ruled by an authoritarian.

In the terrifying tale, “The country holds an annual walking contest in which 100 teens must journey, non-stop and under strict rules (you stop… you die), until only one of them is still standing alive and receiving a prize. The story told of a 16-year old walker named Raymond Garraty and the teens, some good, some bad, some mysterious, in his orbit.”

Speaking with Rue Morgue, Øvredal teased his “claustrophobic” adaptation of the novel.