Glen Powell Runs for His Life in New Running Man Adaptation

Paramount Pictures released the official trailer for The Running Man (2025) on June 22. The new film, from director Edgar Wright, will be an adaptation of Stephen King’s dystopian thriller of the same name. It was originally published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1982.

The Running Man was only one of King’s books to be released in the late 1970s and early 1980s without King’s real name attached. King continued publishing as Bachman until 1984, when he was “outed” by a pair of reporters. He then elected to reveal himself to the public in interviews.

The Running Man was one of the more enduring novels in that collection, having been adapted for film in 1987. That film, a relatively straightforward action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, is only tangentially related to King’s novel. The action is updated to an earlier period, and the film strips away a lot of the sardonicism and pathos of the novel.

King’s book, which was written in a week, is set in the United States in 2025. The year 2025 was a fairly prescient choice for the book, because the real-world release date is the same. The US in 2025 is a shambolic, near-totalitarian state whose most popular export is the aptly named “murderploitation” game show The Running Man.

The action centers on Ben Richards, a blue-collar Everyman who lives in “Co-Op City” with his wife and a daughter who is terminally ill. Richards, who is blacklisted and can’t find a job, decides to take a shot at redemption and sign up for The Running Man, the highest-rated television show. On the show, participants (dubbed “Runners”) must avoid being killed by “Hunters,” who are essentially professional assassins. All of this is transmitted live to an eager public that cheers on their favorite Hunters and boo at the poor contestants.

Ben Richards is given the sobriquet “Danger” for his show and is quickly labeled an enemy of the state. Ben is allowed 12 12-hour head start by his opponents before the murder hunt begins. What ensues is a bloodthirsty but oddly emotional game of cat-and-mouse.

The basic rule of the game is simple, and is the same in both the book and the 1987 film: if you survive for 30 days, you win $1 billion. (As for inflation, the minimum wage in the US is now $9,250/year.) No one has ever come close. The current record-holder, whose name Richards learns during the story, is at 197 hours. However, living through each day nets the contestant a million-dollar payout and bonus points for killing Hunters, providing a somewhat grim incentive to play that only the most desperate or destitute participants accept. Ben Richards, who is solidly in the latter camp, does about as well as he can be expected to, but this being King’s America, don’t expect a happy ending.

The 1987 film version of The Running Man is a direct, simple, often-loud remake of the book, updated for an Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie of the late 1980s. The core concept of a contestant-hunting game show is the same, but the film shifts into a more science-fiction/action/fantasy direction. Richards is played as a beefed-up version of the more “scrawny” and “pre-tubercular” character in the book.

Edgar Wright has been attached to the project for some time. In interviews from as far back as 2017, Wright has stated that The Running Man was one of his top choices for films to adapt. In 2021, Paramount announced the film, with Wright and co-writer Michael Bacall on board to update the concept to a modern-day context, while still staying truer to the tone of King’s book.

The official trailer from Paramount has dropped recently and shows off the movie to be a faithful adaptation of the book, but with Wright’s usual stylized flourishes. Glen Powell stars as Ben Richards, playing the role of a hangdog, desperate version of his usual self. Josh Brolin takes the role of Dan Killian, the game show host who pushes Richards into participating. As Ben becomes a public favorite and the game gets more desperate, he increasingly becomes an example of the show and a threat to its existence.

Lee Pace stars as Evan McCone, the top Hunter for the show, who is charged with tracking Richards down. Ben’s wife, Sheila, is played by Jayme Lawson. Colman Domingo plays the game show host Bobby Thompson. The cast also features Michael Cera in a notable role as rebel Bradley Throckmorton. William H. Macy, David Zayas, Emilia Jones, Karl Glusman, Katy O’Brian, and Daniel Ezra round out the cast in supporting roles.

It remains to be seen if Wright and Bacall will have the courage to go to the famously despondent ending that King wrote for the book. However, so far it appears that Wright will be true to the darker elements of the story, in particular the discussions of desperation, exploitation, and the numbing power of violent media.

More Coming From King’s Bachman Era

Stephen King fans interested in King’s Bachman-era work will have another film to look forward to. The Long Walk, a novel King wrote in 1979, is also getting a film adaptation, also set for 2025. The Long Walk is another dystopian competition piece, and also deals with the themes of government brutality, media manipulation, and the price of survival. It’s scheduled for release on September 12, while The Running Man is set to open on November 7.