Three years have gone by since it was announced that Edgar Wright was coming on board to direct a new take on the novel The Running Man, which was written by Stephen King under his Richard Bachman pen name. The Running Man was, of course, previously turned into a film back in 1987 that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and had little to do with the source material. Earlier this year, it was announced that Glen Powell of Top Gun: Maverick, Hit Man, and Twisters is following in the footsteps of Schwarzenegger to play the lead role in the new adaptation – and during a recent interview, Powell said that, while the new film is expected to be closer to King’s writing than the first adaptation was, it will still have that “fun Edgar Wright flavor” to it.

Powell told Screen Rant that he’s preparing for The Running Man. “I have been doing a lot of sprinting. That’s all I can say. I’ve been working on my sprint. [Laughs] No, I’ll say that Edgar Wright has been one of my favorite filmmakers for as long as I can remember. I think since Shaun of the Dead, I was like, ‘I can’t wait to work with this guy.’ And he just keeps churning out brilliant things that only his brain could concoct. The Running Man is something he’s so passionate about, and we’re really taking the Stephen King book and just adding a lot of fun Edgar Wright flavor to it, and it has been awesome. That’s going to be a really fun one; I’m super excited about it.“

Wright is producing the film with Nira Park and Simon Kinberg.

King’s novel has the following description: It was the ultimate death game in a nightmare future America. The year is 2025 and reality TV has grown to the point where people are willing to wager their lives for a chance at a billion-dollar jackpot. Ben Richards is desperate – he needs money to treat his daughter’s illness. His last chance is entering a game show called The Running Man where the goal is to avoid capture by Hunters who are employed to kill him. Surviving this month-long chase is another issue when everyone else on the planet is watching – and willing to turn him in for the reward.

During an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast last year, Wright said he was drawn to The Running Man because, “I like the film but I like the book more, and they didn’t really adapt the book. Even as a teenager when I saw the Schwarzenegger film I was like, ‘Oh, this isn’t like the book at all!’ And I think, ‘Nobody’s [done] that book.’ So when that came up, I was thinking, and Simon Kinberg says, ‘Do you have any interest in The Running Man?’ I said, ‘You know what? I’ve often thought that that book is something crying out to be adapted.’ Now, that doesn’t mean that it’s easy! [Laughs] But it’s something that we are working on, yes.”

Are you looking forward to seeing a version of The Running Man that stars Glen Powell and has that “fun Edgar Wright flavor”? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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