Arnold Schwarzenegger gave his blessing to The Running Man remake

Remaking a fan favorite is always a risky move. And while the power of Edgar Wright, Glen Powell and Josh Brolin is enough to restore confidence in the upcoming remake of The Running Man, it might take even more to get some on board. Enter the original Ben Richards, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who lent his support for the rerun after being tracked down by the director and star.

Glen Powell – who will be taking over the role of Richards, who has been forced to participate in the country’s most dangerous game show – recently revealed that Arnold Schwarzenegger gave the go-ahead for The Running Man remake. Powell said that he used his friendship with Arnold’s son Patrick – and not his having already worked with him on The Expendables 3 – to set up a FaceTime meeting. “Arnold gave us his full blessing and we get to give Arnold a very specific fun gift from the movie in a couple of weeks..So I’m very excited to see him.” It’s the new version of that quasi-Aquaman suit, isn’t it, Glen?

Other than the blessing from Arnold, The Running Man remake has been building hype elsewhere, with the trailer having been shown at CinemaCon just last week. While the rest of us will have to wait to see what Wright has in store, our own editor-in-chief Chris Bumbray was in attendance and summed up the trailer as such: “Set in a dystopian future. No one has ever survived The Running Man. Glen Powell’s daughter is sick and he needs money. The film has an epic scope – the design of the show where Domingo hosts is reminiscent of the original, but the scope is very different as the lead is running all over the world, and regular people are trying to kill him too. One set piece is set on a plane as the pilots try to kill him and they all flip around the cabin. Also looks like it could be R-Rated and has LOADS of action. Very much Glen Powell’s launch as a Tom Cruise style star.”

While this year’s The Running Man is generally being considered a remake of the 1987 movie, it’s more fair to say that it is another adaptation of the 1982 book by Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King). Outside of Powell and Brolin, the cast also features Colman Domingo (taking over hosting duties from Richard Dawson), Lee Pace, William H. Macy, Michael Cera, David Zayas, Sean Hayes, and more.

The Running Man wrapped production last month, with the movie darting to theaters on November 7th.

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