Edgar Wright Talks About His Adaptation of Stephen King's THE RUNNING MAN and Wanting To Stay True To The Book

Edgar Wright has been attached to direct a new film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Running Man for a couple of years. He is actively developing it and in a recent interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he discussed his vision for the film and how he wants it to be a true adaptation of the book, not like the original 1987 movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, which was a completely different thing. Wright said:

"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. 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. 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 and doing something interesting with it.'

He goes on to specifically talk about The Running Man and 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. 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."

The Running Man is a dystopian story set in a future society where the government controls everything, the story follows Ben Richards, a desperate and impoverished man who participates in a deadly game show called "The Running Man" to win money for his family. The game involves Richards being hunted by professional killers while trying to evade capture for a month. As he navigates through a decaying and dangerous urban landscape, Richards becomes a symbol of resistance against the oppressive government.

I just love that Wright is actually going to be adapting a Stephen King story and I’m confident that he’s going to do a great job with it. I’m excited about this film project!