Edgar Wright, best known for directing Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, has a new film on the horizon: an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Running Man—and reportedly, a more faithful version than the one released in 1987.
Deadline broke the news about the project, where Wright will direct a script that he’ll be co-writing with screenwriter Michael Bacall. Simon Kinberg is set to produce the project.
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The original novel hit stores in 1982, with King writing under the name Richard Bachman. Taking place in the then-distant future of 2025, it’s about a man who lives in a dystopian world where the government runs a horrific game show, in which contestants are enemies of the state and are ruthlessly hunted down and killed. The longer they stay alive and the more people they kill, the more money they’ll get.
Paul Michael Glaser directed adaptation of the novel back in 1987, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger (pictured above) as Ben Richards, a helicopter pilot who is framed for a mass murder in California, and after escaping, is coerced into joining the game. The film is only loosely based on the novel, and was largely panned by critics and audiences at the time. King himself wasn’t a huge fan of the film, and had actually asked that his name be removed from the project before its release.
According to Deadline, the project will be “a top priority pic for Paramount,” and it’s a film that Wright has apparently been wanting to do for a while.
