Edgar Wright Calls His THE RUNNING MAN Adaptation a “Dangerous Road Movie”
Edgar Wright is putting his own spin on The Running Man, and this time, it’s staying closer to Stephen King’s original vision. The upcoming film, starring Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, Twisters), is set to hit theaters on November 7, 2025, courtesy of Paramount.
Unlike the 1987 Schwarzenegger-led adaptation, which turned the dystopian thriller into a high-octane, game-show spectacle, Wright’s version promises to capture the raw, survivalist essence of King’s novel.
In a conversation with Empire Magazine, Wright opened up about what excites him most about his take:
“One of the things about the book that I loved was the fact that Ben Richards is out in the world on his own, so it’s like the deadliest game of hide and seek. It does feel like making a road movie in a lot of ways: a very intense, dangerous road movie.”
Wright elaborated further: “Ben is moving through different environments and meeting different people as he tries to survive 30 days out in the wild.”
The movie is sure to be very different from the neon-soaked, gladiator-style action of Paul Michael Glaser’s The Running Man, but that’s exactly the point. King’s novel, published under his Richard Bachman pseudonym in 1982, is more of a relentless, paranoid chase than a crazy bloodsport.
Joining Powell in the cast are Colman Domingo (Candyman) and Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding), though their roles are still under wraps.
For those unfamiliar, the 1987 film reworked King’s story into a dystopian game show where convicts fight for their freedom against flamboyant killers. While it deviated from the novel, the movie carved out a legacy of its own.
Powell previously talked about the upcoming project, saying: "I've been an Edgar Wright fan my whole life. And talking to him about Running Man, what's been really incredible is his take on it. It's very much not the original Schwarzenegger flick, it's much more grounded in the Stephen King (novella) version.
“While I like the original 1987 film, it is very different from the story that King wrote, so I’m actually very excited about the fact that Wright’s film will be much closer to the source material.”
Wright previously discussed his vision for the film and how he wants it to be a true adaptation of the book, saying: "I think in this day and age as well is like in terms of like, you know I think when remakes are done well is if there's something else to add or there's a different take on it.
He continued: “So I think the problem is sometimes recently like remakes are just kind of facsimiles of the original film and I don't really get that excited about a lot of them because they feel like sort of karaoke versions of the originals.”
Wright added: “Obviously back in like the '70s and '80s you had ones where they were additive like Philip Kauffman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers or John Carpenter's The Thing or David Cronenberg's The Fly; it's taking something and doing something interesting with it.'“
He goes on to specifically talk about his vision for it, saying: "In terms of like things that I've been (doing), like you know, The Running Man which is something that is in active development. Why is that interesting to me? I like the film but I like the book more and they didn't really adapt the book.”
He said: “Even as a teenager when I saw the Schwarzenegger film I was like, 'Oh this isn't like the book at all,' and I think nobody's adapted that book.
“So when that came up I was thinking you know and Simon Kinberg says 'Do you have any interest in The Running Man?' I said, 'You know what I've often thought that that book is is something like crying out to be adapted.' Now that doesn't mean that it's easy but like it is something that we are working on, yes, I'll say that much."
Wright’s film is looking to tap into something different, something grimmer, more suspenseful, and true to King’s original dystopian nightmare. I can’t wait to see what Wright delivers!