Edgar Wright on Reimagining The Running Man for Today
Edgar Wright chats about his fresh take on Stephen King’s The Running Man, why he ditched a set year, and how the film’s dystopian themes are hitting close to home.
Ask any film buff about their top directors and Edgar Wright’s name is bound to pop up. So, when word got out that he was tackling Stephen King’s classic sci-fi yarn The Running Man, anticipation was sky-high. Glen Powell steps into the lead, playing a bloke who signs up for a deadly game show, dodging professional hunters for a month. Our own Joshua Ryan summed it up as
“A Slick, Star-Fueled Thrill Ride”
in his 7/10 review.
We caught up with Wright to chat about his approach to King’s dystopian world, the challenges of adapting such a well-known story, and how some of the book’s wildest predictions are already creeping into real life.
Setting the Scene: A Timeless Dystopia
King’s original novel was set in 2025, while the Schwarzenegger flick landed in 2017. Wright’s version? No year at all. He reckons there’s no point pinning it down, saying,
“A lot of sci-fi films, even great ones, can’t kick the date down the road far enough and eventually it catches up with you. Obviously, 2001 is long in the rearview. So I thought, ‘Why date yourself?’”
Instead, he imagined a retrofuturistic tomorrow, as if 2025 was dreamt up in the early ‘80s. That’s why you’ll spot a mix of high-tech gadgets and old-school analogue gear. Wright notes there’s a new fascination with analogue tech, and a growing weariness with our always-online lives.
He also points out that some of the film’s more out-there ideas, like AI and deepfakes, are already part of our world.
“You have a subplot that revolves around AI and deepfakes where you don’t even have to say what it is. It’s just read as this. The only thing that’s surprising to the people in the film is how fast it is and how it’s developing split seconds after something’s happened.”
Wright admits it was a bit unsettling to see reality catch up with fiction so quickly, but he’s not too fussed. If the future feels just around the corner, he reckons that’s a good thing.
Adapting King: From Page to Screen
This isn’t Wright’s first go at adapting a story—he previously brought Scott Pilgrim to life from comic book pages. But The Running Man, being a novel, offered a different challenge. He says the world King built was so vivid, it was a treat to expand on it.
“The thing that we took from the book that was really fun to expand on was the world-building — the idea of what the other shows are like, what the names of the companies are, what the brand names are.”
Wright and his team played up the contrast between the haves and have-nots. In the slums, folks are retrofitting old cars into EVs, while the rich zip around in slick rides that look like ‘80s dreams of the future. He also had a bit of fun with the details, creating fake brands and logos to flesh out the world. Everything’s owned by one mega-corporation, a nod to today’s tech giants. He reckons there’s heaps for eagle-eyed viewers to spot on repeat watches, and he’s a big fan of DVD extras and commentary tracks for those who want to dig deeper.
Genre Films: Smuggling in Big Ideas
Wright’s always been keen on films that entertain but also have something to say. He describes genre films as a bit of a Trojan horse:
“Ostensibly, the horse is like a sci-fi action film, and inside, there’s plenty to chew on for later.”
He reckons you can reach a wider crowd with a genre flick than a straight drama, and that’s part of the fun. King’s work, he says, is packed with metaphors and social commentary, but it’s always entertaining first and foremost.
He also points out that King’s dystopian tales, like The Running Man and The Long Walk, have stayed relevant for decades.
“Stephen King is like Nostradamus and accurately predicted our future. And the other, even more depressing thought, is how little has changed in 45 years or 50 years in the case of The Running Man.”
Wright loves that King’s stories feel grounded and relatable, letting punters experience the action right alongside the main character.
Balancing Satire and Action
While the original book and the Schwarzenegger film had their own tone, Wright’s version leans into satire and black comedy. He reckons King’s sense of humour is underrated, and the book’s sharp take on telly and media was a big influence.
“One of the joys of the book is how brilliantly satiric he is about TV.”
Wright was impressed by how King, writing from a laundry job in the ‘70s, managed to nail the media landscape so accurately.
As for casting Glen Powell, Wright says he wanted someone with an everyman vibe, a bloke who feels like he’s just stumbled into the chaos. Powell reminded him of early Harrison Ford or Bruce Willis—tough, but not invincible.
“He’s almost like a human piñata in the film.”
Wright reckons Powell brings both grit and charm to the role, making him the perfect fit for this new take on The Running Man.