Glen Powell has already played a hit man, so why not star as a running man?
The “Hit Man” actor/writer and “Anyone But You” star has officially been cast in Edgar Wright‘s “Running Man” remake, as announced at CinemaCon 2024. The feature will be released by Paramount.
Writer/director Wright previously announced that he was adapting Stephen King’s 1982 novel “The Running Man” (published under pseudonym Richard Bachman) for another big screen iteration in 2021. Deadline reported at the time that Wright will be teaming with his “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” screenwriter Michael Bacall to be as faithful to the source material as possible. The project was hinted at since 2017 with Wright tweeting that it’s the one film he would want to remake.
“The Running Man” was first adapted into a 1987 feature film and starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and was directed by Paul Michael Glaser. Both the novel and the film were set in the year 2025, where the U.S. was an economically depressed nation. To find success, citizens would participate in a game show called “The Running Man” where they are chased by murderous Hunters across the globe.
Simon Kinberg and Nira Park are producing “The Running Man” alongside Edgar Wright.
While on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in December 2023, Wright teased that his take on the novel was “in active development.” The director also hinted that his version will be more like the book itself and therefore feel like a standalone film instead of a remake.
“Why is that interesting to me? It’s like, 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!’” Wright said. “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! But it’s something that we are working on, yes. I’ll tell you that much.”
Powell has a slew of other projects in the works. He’s set to star in a “Chad Powers” football comedy TV series at Hulu (which Powell also co-wrote) and will be making his Broadway debut soon. He will also be seen in Universal’s “Twisters,” the sequel to 1996’s “Twister.” Powell on Wednesday appeared on stage alongside his co-stars Anthony Ramos and Daisy Edgar-Jones and director Lee Isaac Chung as they premiered new footage from the action sequel.
Reporting by Brian Welk.
