Edgar Wright’s take on Stephen King’s The Running Man will be rather different to the Arnold Schwarzenegger-headlined movie.
Edgar Wright’s slate continues to get busier and busier with the news that he has signed a deal with Paramount to bring Stephen King’s novella, The Running Man, to life.
King’s 1982 story (originally written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman) has of course already been adapted for the screen once before, when Arnold Schwarzenegger memorably played Ben Richards, the titular ‘running man’ in an action-oriented romp in 1987’s The Running Man.
While Schwarzenegger’s film is both popular and a lot of fun, it took a lot of departures from King’s original source material which was somewhat darker and spent more time detailing the dystopian elements of a future America where television truly had become what Karl Marx might have termed as ‘an opiate for the people’. It is being reported that Wright’s adaptation will veer much closer to the source material and look to draw some of these elements out.
Wright will be co-writing the script with his Scott Pilgrim Vs The World partner, Michael Bacall, while Simon Kinberg, who reportedly brought the project to Wright, will produce.
Wright previously named The Running Man as a dream project a couple of years ago, so it seems like he has a take on the story that has been brewing for some time. Frankly, we can’t wait to see what it is.
The director’s next film is the oft-delayed Last Night In Soho which is coming to us in October. Wright is also working on a Baby Driver sequel and The Chain for Universal. There was also talk last year of him directing Stage 13 for Amblin, a ghost story set on a film set, so where The Running Man fits into his busy schedule remains to be seen.
We’ll definitely be bringing you more news on this one as we hear it.
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