Edgar Wright to Direct Stephen King’s ‘The Running Man’ at Paramount – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures signs deal with Edgar Wright to develop and direct a new adaptation of The running man, the futuristic novel by Stephen King that the author first published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It won’t be a remake of the 1987 film that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger; the Baby driver The writer-director will co-write the story with Michael Bacall, and they’ll be much more faithful to King’s bestselling novel. Bacall will write the script.

Simon Kinberg and Audrey Chon will produce under Kinberg’s Genre Films banner, alongside Wright’s Complete Fiction banner Nira Park. Kinberg pitched the idea to Emma Watts, based on their long relationship, and then Kinberg wooed Wright. If the filmmaker is very selective, the prospect of a new The running man is the one who intrigued him; to the point that when asked if he could remake a film, he would choose that one. It was in 2017. Now it has become real.

It becomes a priority image for Paramount, and a novel, which King published as a paperback in 1982, a dystopian thriller that still feels prescient in the current collision between pop culture and politics, this before social media was rolled out. ‘raise the stakes.

Wright pulls out excellent reviews for The Sparks Brothers, the documentary he directed and which premiered last month at the Sundance Virtual Film Festival. He is replaced by CAA, Independent Talent Group and Nelson Davis; King by Paradigm; and Kinberg by CAA.