Wright Talks New “Running Man” Differences

Beloved British filmmaker Edgar Wright (“Hot Fuzz,” “Baby Driver,” “Shaun of the Dead”) returns to cinemas this year with an unexpected entry into his oeuvre – a new adaptation of Stephen King’s short story “The Running Man”.

The story follows a man named Ben Richards who signs up for a deadly game show in a dystopian world in order to try and win life-changing prize money – to win though he must evade a team of hitmen. The story was loosely adapted back in 1987 as an Arnold Schwarzenegger-led sci-fi action film.

Wright’s version, which has Glen Powell playing Ben Richards, will be a quite different take than the Schwarzenegger version and is expected to go closer to the King story.

Speaking with Empire about the film, Wright confirms one big change is that the event unfolds over a much longer time span and out in the real world as opposed to a shortened period set in cordoned off and abandoned section of a city:

“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. Ben is moving through different environments and meeting different people as he tries to survive 30 days out in the wild.”

The result is less “American Gladiators” and more “The Most Dangerous Game”. Wright also sees this as Powell’s real coming out as an action hero

“I felt it was important to see somebody who hadn’t really done something like this before. It’s similar to Bruce Willis, when he was still the guy from ‘Moonlighting’ before he did Die Hard, where that adds to the suspense.”

Lee Pace, Josh Brolin, Michael Cera, William H. Macy, Emilia Jones, Katy O’Brian, Daniel Ezra, Karl Glusman, Jayme Lawson, David Zayas, Sean Hayes, and Colman Domingo co-star in the film opening on November 7th.

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