Edgar Wright To Helm New Adaptation Of The Running Man

Here’s some news that’s come right out of the blue, with the story just breaking that Edgar Wright is set to direct a new version of Stephen King’s The Running Man, which the horror legend published in 1982 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.

Of course, when most people hear The Running Man, their mind instantly wanders to the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle, which took some pretty big liberties with the source material to better fit the leading man’s persona. It’s hardly an untouchable classic by any means, but there’s a certain amount of kitsch charm and cheesy nostalgia to be derived from seeing the big Austrian dealing with a cavalcade of ridiculously dressed enemies while clad in a yellow spandex jumpsuit.

Wright’s movie isn’t going to be a remake, but rather a more straightforward adaptation of King’s novel, which the Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy filmmaker is set to co-write with his Scott Pilgrim vs. the World collaborator Michael Bacall. The Baby Driver director doesn’t lend his name to just any project, and he’s never been a studio hand for hire, so he’s clearly hugely invested in The Running Man.

Schwarzenegger’s actioner proved to have some pretty prescient social commentary on the reality TV era, something that could easily apply to the social media age in a fresh spin on the central premise. The idea of Edgar Wright directing The Running Man is certainly a fascinating prospect, and the literary adaptation is now being set up as a top priority project at Paramount, presumably in the hopes that he’ll make it his next effort behind the camera once he finishes the promotional trail for upcoming psychological horror Last Night in Soho, which is scheduled to hit theaters in October.