Actor Glen Powell is starring in the adaptation of The Running Man, based on the novel by Stephen King, with director Edgar Wright at the helm. The story was previously made into a 1987 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and some have speculated about whether this will be a shot for shot remake, or a brand new take, and Powell is here to assure us that this story is pretty different, with interesting parallels.
The actor explained in an interview with GamesRadar:
“One of the things that I would say is the structure of the movie is more like Braveheart and Gladiator. Like, ordinary people who are trying to save individual family members or make up for terrible things that have happened to family members and sort of end up getting pulled into a greater story where their problems aren’t unique, and their sense of the world and how they’re interacting with their world is… they’re almost finding humanity in the inhumane.”
Based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name (first published in 1982 using the pseudonym Richard Bachman) and directed by Edgar Wright, the movie follows Powell’s Ben Richards, an out-of-work father who desperately needs money to buy medicine for his sick daughter. Out of options, he ends up competing on the reality show The Running Man, where contestants can win $1 billion if they manage to evade a team of Hunters for 30 days. The catch? No one’s ever managed it before…
Powell also says that 1976’s Network was a point of reference for the movie, which makes sense considering Wright’s comic background. “That was all about sort of the lengths that people go to,” he explains. Sidney Lumet’s comedy follows a struggling TV network which goes to extreme lengths to boost its viewership. “The dehumanization of human life and how a network will kind of do anything for ratings. That’s definitely a tonal [comparison].”
The Running Man arrives in US theaters on November 14.
