37 Years Later, New Stephen King Sci-Fi Movie Remake Repeats 1 Complaint He Had With The Original

Summary

• In 1987, a Stephen King novel was adapted into a Hollywood action flick
• The movie had mediocre reviews and underwhelming box office returns
• This comes down in part to one major flaw, which will be repeated in the upcoming reboot.

The Running Man (1987) was one of Stephen King's earliest books. In a dystopian version of America's future, an impoverished family man named Ben Richards struggles to deal with unemployment and his daughter's mounting medical bills. In desperation, Richards signs up to be on 'The Running Man', a reality show where contestants try to evade highly trained killers. For every hour that they survive, they earn money. If they manage to live for 30 days, they win 1 billion dollars.

Richards has no hope of winning – he's just your average guy, without the physical prowess it will take to outrun and outfight his pursuers. He knows that competing on the show will kill him, but he hopes to live long enough to earn the money it will take to save his family.

Some Major Changes

Five years after the publication of The Running Man, the book was adapted for the big screen. The adaptation is loose, to say the least – here, Richards is a former cop who is sent to prison after refusing to follow orders and fire on innocent civilians. 'The Running Man' reality show features prisoners competing for a pardon, and the movie in general makes Richards an anti-authoritarian hero who is not only evading capture but also taking down the whole system.

In Stephen King's 2002 memoir On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, he wryly observes that Ben Richards is meant to be 'scrawny' and 'pre-tubercular… as far away from the Arnold Schwarzenegger character in the movie as you can get'.

But How Will He Survive?!

Richards is an underdog in the book, which makes him easy to cheer for. It also makes sense that he is consistently underestimated by the people trying to find him. Schwarzenegger's casting changed Richards' character entirely. He's not an everyman or an underdog. He's… well, he's Arnold freakin' Schwarzenegger, a man whose many claims to fame include the ability to deadlift waitresses.

The casting of Arnold Schwarzenegger was emblematic of the entire issue with the movie's adaptive choices. A review from Variety pointed out that the new, action-oriented take on King's book resulted in a movie that was 'wallowing in the sort of mindless violence for the roller derby-addicted masses it is supposedly criticizing.'

In spite of Schwarzenegger's draw, The Running Man movie had a mediocre box office return. It made only $38 million at the box office, against a budget of $31 million.

New Adaptation, Same Mistakes?

37 years later, The Running Man is getting a reboot. Directed by the popular Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver), this new version already looks to be repeating an old mistake.

Taking Schwarzenegger's place as 'underdog' Ben Richards is up-and-coming Glen Powell. Though he doesn't quite have the Austrian bodybuilder's outrageous physique, Powell is still your classic tall, muscular, all-American action star. He flew planes in Top Gun: Maverick and will be chasing down tornadoes in 2024's Twisters.

So it looks like yet again we'll be getting a Ben Richards who works out regularly and is as far from the book as you can get. Where's our scrawny, pre-tubercular hero? Where's our action movie starring Michael Cera or Jay Baruchel, or Steve Buscemi? (Actually, that would be amazing. Give us our Steve Buscemi shoot-em-up and give it to us NOW!)

Keep Your Fingers Crossed

In spite of the disappointing casting, Edgar Wright has a stellar track record with action movies. We might have our doubts about Glen Powell, but is the man who directed Shaun of the Dead or Scott Pilgrim likely to create a boring or stupid reboot? It seems unlikely.

The Running Man was only confirmed at 2024's CinemaCon, so it will be some time before it hits theatres and we find out for sure.

Source: Variety, via GameShow Wiki.