Of all the Stephen King adaptations floating around, Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man is one of the most exciting. The original 1987 film, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, is a beloved ’80s action cheese-fest, but it barely resembles the grim, dystopian novel King wrote under his Richard Bachman pseudonym.
Stephen King’s Seal of Approval For The Running Man
Getting this project off the ground required the blessing of one very important person: Stephen King himself. It turns out, the master of horror has some serious pull when it comes to adaptations of his work. Who knew? (Everyone. Everyone knew.) Not only did he need to approve the script, but he also had the final say on its leading man. This put Glen Powell in the nerve-wracking position of having his dream job hang in the balance, waiting for King’s verdict.
Imagine being Glen Powell. You’ve just been offered the lead role in a high-profile movie like The Running Man by a visionary director like Edgar Wright. It’s a career-defining moment. Then, you get the follow-up text: “By the way, Stephen King needs to sign off on you.” No pressure. According to an article from Bleeding Cool, Powell shared the tense story.
After Wright offered him the role of Ben Richards, the celebration was short-lived. Bleeding Cool reported Powell saying, “Later that night, you’re like, ‘By the way, you have to be approved by Stephen King.’ He’s like, he’s gonna watch Hitman tonight, so I had to wait overnight for Stephen King to watch Hitman and hope that I still had the role in the morning.”
Talk about a stressful 24 hours. Powell had to just sit there and hope that his charming performance as a fake assassin in Hitman would be enough to convince the king of horror that he had what it takes to portray the desperate and cynical Ben Richards. Luckily for him—and for us—King gave his blessing, and the project moved forward.
Handing in Homework to the Master
It’s almost a Hollywood story in itself: an actor’s fate resting on a single movie night at Stephen King’s house. It wasn’t just the casting that needed King’s approval. Director Edgar Wright and his co-writer Michael Bacall also had to submit their script of The Running Man for review. Wright, speaking at New York Comic Con, described the experience with a touch of humor and a lot of anxiety. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Wright joked, “He’s like, the most famous English teacher in history.”
He added, “I was with Michael Bacall, who wrote the film with me, and I was like, ‘This was so nerve-wracking to have to hand in our homework to Stephen King.’ But he loved the screenplay, and so it was great. It was a real kismet.” King’s feedback was apparently glowing. Wright shared an email from the author, who described the adaptation as, “more faithful to the book to keep the fans happy enough to keep me on my toes and excited.”
The 1987 film was fun, but it traded the book’s dark social commentary for explosive action and Arnie one-liners. Wright’s version aims to bring back the grit and desperation that made the book so compelling. So, what makes this new version of The Running Man different? For starters, it’s embracing the novel’s core concept: the “game” isn’t confined to a studio arena. Ben Richards is on the run in the real world, playing a deadly game of hide-and-seek with professional assassins hunting him down for a global audience.
Final Thoughts
With a stellar cast that includes Lee Pace, Colman Domingo, and Josh Brolin, The Running Man is shaping up to be a faithful, thrilling, and uncomfortably timely adaptation when it hits theaters. The film will hit theatres on November 7.
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