Glen Powell Tapped to Star in Edgar Wright’s Adaptation of The Running Man

One of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood, Glen Powell, has officially been tapped to play the lead in Paramount’s reboot of the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger cult-classic, The Running Man, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Powell is fresh off the success of Anything But You, which earned a surprising $217 million dollars at the box office for Sony Pictures. Paramount already has a working relationship with Powell, who appeared as the cocky and confident pilot ‘Hangman’ in Top Gun: Maverick in 2022.

Based on the novel by Stephen King (written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman), The Running Man will be directed by Edgar Wright, who has been attached to the project since 2021. Wright co-wrote the script with Michael Bacall, and will also serve as producer alongside partners Nira Parkl and Simon Kinberg. Wright first rose to prominence as director of the ‘Three Flavors Cornetto’ trilogy (Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End), and since then has been a mainstay in genre cinema.

Powell will be seen next as a Houston police officer who goes undercover as a hitman, while trying to save a woman in need in the aptly titled Hit Man which debuts in Netflix on June 7. Following that, he’ll appear alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones in Twisters, which serves as the long awaited sequel to the 1996 classic, Twister. The action disaster flick makes its theatrical debut on July 19, 2024, from Universal Pictures.

Edgar Wright Promises a Faithful Adaptation of The Running Man

Though it’s been a favorite among genre fans for years, the 1987 version of The Running Man has come under scrutiny for not adhering well to its source material. Stephen King, who penned the original novel, even went so far as to distance himself from the project after realizing just how much it diverted from his original vision. Edgar Wright is determined to make an adaptation that will stick close to the book for not only the fans, but for himself as well.

Appearing on the ‘Happy Sad Confused’ podcast back in 2023, Wright spoke about how disappointed he was as a teenager upon seeing the Arnold Schwarzenegger film. Even back then, he knew that if he ever got the chance to make his own version, it would be a more faithful adaptation than the one delivered by director Paul Michael Glaser. He remarked that the novel is “something crying out to be adapted.”

“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! But it’s something that we are working on, yes.”

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There’s no word yet on when Edgar Wright’s version of The Running Man will go into production, but with Glen Powell’s stock only rising in Hollywood, it would behoove everyone involved to get started sooner rather than later in order to capitalize on his success.