The Goonies star James Brolin will star opposite Glen Powell in Edgar Wright’s take on Stephen King’s The Running Man.
As Edgar Wright’s take on The Running Man continues to edge closer to production, another key piece of casting has been announced. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Josh Brolin will play the film’s lead antagonist, most likely the lead hunter pursuing Powell’s Ben Richards, the titular ‘running man.’
Set in a dystopian future where America has become largely ghettoised, reality TV is the ‘opiate of the masses’, pumping out violent shows that distract viewers from the misery that surrounds them. The most popular show of all, The Running Man, charges a contestant with running and hiding for a month as hunters attempt to track them down and murder them.
If it sounds dark, that’s because it is. King’s original book is so bleak that he penned it under the pseudonym of RIchard Bachman, a pen name that he used to publish a more twisted and cynical brand of his trademark horror. Unlike some of King’s more classic yarns, the horrors in The Running Man are all too human and that’s why the announcement of Josh Brolin as ‘the ruthless producer of the game show’ makes for excellent casting from our perspective.
Read more: The Running Man | What might Edgar Wright’s new adaptation of Stephen King’s novel look like?
The actor not only has one of the greatest movie villains of this century on his resume in the form of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Thanos, but possesses the kind of powerful screen presence that means when he takes supporting roles in projects such as this one, his influence in films often belies a lack of screen time.
It’s certainly something that Denis Villeneuve has used to great effect in his Dune films and it’s possible Edgar Wright is planning to use Brolin in a similar fashion. Killian, the producer of The Running Man TV show may not appear a great deal in the novel (he features more in the 1987 Schwarzenegger movie, played memorably by Richard Dawson) but the character’s presence still looms over the story. That sounds like the perfect use of Brolin to us.
The actor will join Glen Powell and Love Lies Bleeding's Katy O’Brian in the cast for the film. Powell plays Ben Richards, the running man of the title, while O’Brian will play another contestant on the show. We have a release date to look forward to: Paramount Pictures has announced the official date for the film’s debut and it’s just over a year away. The Running Man is set for release on 21st November 2025. We’ll bring you more on this project as and when we hear it.
