While director Edgar Wright and star Glen Powell were ready to cross the starting line for Paramount Pictures’ forthcoming The Running Man adaptation, the latter had to wait for approval from author Stephen King.
Though the Baby Driver director offered the Chad Powers star the lead role, the duo had to wait for an official green light from King, who penned the 1982 dystopian thriller novel on which the film is based.
“Edgar offered me this movie, and I was like, ‘Yes.’ I’m like, ‘Let’s go…’ And then, like, later that night [Edgar says], ‘By the way, like, you have to be approved by Stephen King. He’s gonna watch Hit Man tonight,” Powell recalled at a New York Comic Con panel, per People.
The Twisters star continued, “And so I had to wait overnight for Stephen King to watch Hit Man and hope that I still had the role in the morning. It’s terrible.”
Of course, King “loved” the film, Powell said, meaning he could go on to portray Ben Richards, a working-class father who, in the near future, is forced to compete in a deadly reality show to save his ailing daughter. The top-rated televised program features contestants who must survive for a month while being hunted by professional assassins.
And while Powell needed approval, so did helmer Wright, recalling the nail-biting experience of sending over a first draft of the script he co-wrote with Michael Bacall. “Stephen King read the screenplay before we started filming, and you know, Stephen King, he’s like the most famous English teacher in history … I was like, ‘This is so nerve-wracking to have to hand in our homework to [him]. But he loved the screenplay, and so it was great.”
Wright noted the film will pay “homage” to not only the source material, but also the original 1987 film adaptation starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in the titular role, though he added his take is “more faithful to the book” than the previous iteration.
The Running Man, initially slated for a Nov. 7 release, will debut theatrically a week later to take advantage of Imax screens.
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