LAS VEGAS — While others his age were making the leap from Dr. Seuss to Judy Blume, J.T. Mollner was working his way, page by difficult page, through Stephen King’s “Carrie.”

He was 7 years old.

The Las Vegas native who wrote and directed last year’s acclaimed “Strange Darling” is now in the King business. Mollner scripted “The Long Walk,” the ambling nightmare of a movie based on King’s novel, which hits theaters this weekend, and he’s deep into adapting the author’s “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon,” which he’ll also direct.

“It’s really difficult to put it in words,” Mollner says of what the author means to him. “I’m not just a fan. I’m sort of a product of his influence on many levels.”

Without having consumed most of King’s work over the years, he doubts he’d even be a writer.

“He’

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