Glen Powell has been tapped to lead Edgar Wright's reimagining of Stephen King's dystopian sci-fi novel The Running Man.
First published in 1982 under King's Richard Bachman pseudonym, the story is set in 2025 and follows protagonist Ben Richards as he becomes a contestant in a reality show called The Running Man. The contestants, allowed to run anywhere in the world, are chased by the general public – who win a huge sum of money if they manage to hunt and kill them.
A loose adaptation of the novel hit theaters in 1987, directed by Paul Michael Glaser and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Ben Richards. Despite mixed reviews, the film subsequently achieved cult classic status. Wright's adaptation was announced back in 2021, with Michael Bacall set to pen the script.
"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,'" Wright stated last year, adding that the book "is something crying out to be adapted."
Powell's star rose after his turn as Lieutenant Jake "Hangman" Seresin in Joseph Kosinski's massively successful action flick Top Gun: Maverick, which served as a direct sequel to the 1986 film. The actor also starred alongside Sydney Sweeney in the romcom Anyone But You, and can be seen next in Richard Linklater's Hit Man – which he co-wrote and produced, as well as Twisters, a standalone sequel to the 1996 disaster flick Twister.
Hit Man is set to, well, hit Netflix on May 24, with Twisters set to release in theaters on July 19. Edgar Wright's version of The Running Man does not yet have a release date. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2024 and beyond.
