It is time to start running for Glen Powell. The Top Gun Maverick and Anyone But You actor is set to take the lead role in Edgar Wright’s new adaption of the 1982 Richard Bachman (Stephen King) novel The Running Man.
The 1987 Schwarzenegger movie, directed by Starsky himself, Paul Michael Glaser, was only a very loose adaption of the material, given a real 80s sheen.
The book is far bigger in scope, and this adaption is thought to be much closer to the source material.
The book is set in 2025 America under a totalitarian regime that uses violent game shows to placate the disenfranchised masses. One desperate man, needing money for his sick daughter, joins the most popular show in which teams of killers hunt down contestants.
The hunted may run anywhere worldwide, and those hunting them are crack teams of ex-FBI, CIA, and Special Forces types rather than the wrestler-like showfreaks of the 80s version.
The longer one survives out there in the world, the more money that contestant earns. But as the game show’s producers and killers will find out, a desperate man will break rules. When this threatens to expose the show’s dark secrets, it becomes a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Wright has been circling the project for a number of years now, and will produce alongside Nira Park and Simon Kinberg. He co-wrote the new script with Michael Bacall.
Powell will next be seen in Richard Linklater’s Hitman on Netflix and Twisters in theaters.
The sonic barrier is down.
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