This is based on one of Stephen King's novels under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman.
Mark Hamill said that when director Francis Lawrence approached him about playing the part of the Major, it immediately evoked his teenage years in Japan, where he went to school next to a U.S. military base. "I said, 'I know who this guy is: I've seen him firsthand,'" Hamill said. "I'd walk across the parking lot, seeing the officers putting these guys through their paces in blazing hot sun, and they were just brutal. Like if you vomit, they force you to eat it. It's horrible."
Mark Hamill compared The Major to another famous villain of his: The Joker from Batman: The Animated Series.
"Villainy is fun to play because they don't think of themselves as villains, they're just doing their job," he said at the time. "Anytime you can come in and just create chaos, it's almost as satisfying to be hated by the audience as it is to be loved."
In the mid 2000's, Frank Darabont bought the rights for novel, intending to make the film but, after many years of no progress, the rights lapsed.
Mark Hamill feels that his character in the Stephen King adaptation is easily his worst character of all time. In an interview at the San Diego Comic-Con, he shared his thoughts on playing the Major. "He's sadistic and all those terrible things. It's unlike anything I've ever done before and that's what I like."