Paramount taps Edgar Wright to develop/direct new Running Man adaptation
Nearly 35 years after the novel was first brought to life on the screen with Arnold Schwarzenegger starring, Stephen King’s The Running Man is getting new life as Paramount is in final talks with Edgar Wright (Baby Driver) to helm a new adaptation of the sci-fi story, according to Deadline.
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First published in 1982 under King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman, the story is set in the dystopian world of 2025 United States, in which the nation’s economy is in ruins and world violence is rising and centers on protagonist Ben Richards, a man desperate to make money to support his gravely ill daughter Cathy and his wife Sheila, as he enters the titular game show in which contestants are allowed to go anywhere in the world while being chased by “Hunters” employed to kill them, earning $100 for every hour the contestant stays alive and avoids capture, an additional $10 for each law enforcement officer or Hunter they kill and $1 billion grand prize if they can survive for 30 days.
Click here to purchase King’s original novel and the Schwarzenegger-starring film adaptation!
Sources report the new film will not be a remake of the 1987 film but rather a more faithful adaptation of King’s novel, with the Blood and Cornetto Trilogy helmer, who has previously expressed a desire to bring his own take to the material, set to co-write the story with Micahel Bacall (Jump Street franchise), with Bacall set to adapt the script.
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The new adaptation is set to be produced by Fox’s X-Men creative head Simon Kinberg and Audrey Chon via his Genre Films production banner alongside Nira Park for Wright’s Complete Fiction label.
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