Glen Powell joins Edgar Wright’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Running Man

In 1982 Stephen King wrote The Running Man under the Richard Bachman pen name. In 1987, The Running Man movie, directed by Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky & Hutch) and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger hit the big screen. The film took the basic idea of the book, but went in a different direction.

This is the novel’s synopsis.

It was the ultimate death game in a nightmare future America. The year is 2025 and reality TV has grown to the point where people are willing to wager their lives for a chance at a billion-dollar jackpot. Ben Richards is desperate – he needs money to treat his daughter’s illness. His last chance is entering a game show called The Running Man where the goal is to avoid capture by Hunters who are employed to kill him. Surviving this month-long chase is another issue when everyone else on the planet is watching – and willing to turn him in for the reward.

Back in 2021, Paramount Pictures announced that it would make a new film adaptation of the novel, one that would be more faithful to the source material. Edgar Wright will direct and reimagine the story with Michael Bacall. Simon Kinberg and Audrey Chon will produce through Kinberg’s Genre Films banner, alongside Nira Park from Wright’s Complete Fiction banner.

Wright had this to say about the project while talking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.

Glen Powell in Top Gun: Maverick

It looks like, according to THR, a leading man has been found as Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, Hit Man, Twisters, Anyone But You) has joined the project. He is a solid actor and I think that, as they are going back to the book, this could end up being great.

Have you read the book? Do you feel Powell will be a good Running Man?

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