Edgar Wright to Helm a New Take on ‘The Running Man’ for Paramount?

Edgar Wright is a very busy man. While we’ve all been anxiously awaiting the release of his latest film, the COVID-delayed Last Night in Soho (currently set for an October 22nd, 2021 release), he went ahead and premiered a documentary, The Sparks Brothers, at this year’s Sundance Film Festival to very positive reviews. 

Not wanting to rest on his laurels, Wright is setting up his next project, which is to be an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Running Man, which he published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Deadline reports that Paramount Pictures is making a deal with the filmmaker for him to direct the adaptation, co-writing the story Michael Bacall, who will then write the script. 

King’s novel tells the story of Ben Richards, a man who participates in a game show where the contestants are chased by “Hunters” sent out to kill them. 

The Running Man was, of course, adapted to the screen once before with Paul Michael Glaser’s 1987 film, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. That film was a disappointment critically and commercially, with King himself being displeased as he felt it strayed too far from the source material. He also criticized the casting of Schwarzenegger in the lead. 

No word yet on who Wright may be casting for the film, but it is said that this is going to be a much more faithful adaptation of King’s novel. This has been a project that Wright has hinted at before, previously saying that if he could remake any film it would be this one.