New Stephen King Sci-Fi Movie Remake Repeats 1 Complaint He Had With The 37-Year-Old Original Adaptation

The new lead actor for Edgar Wright’s upcoming remake of The Running Man repeats one issue that author Stephen King had with the 1987 movie’s casting choice. Based on the 1982 Stephen King novel of the same name (written under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman), The Running Man was first adapted into a major film in 1987 with Arnold Schwarzenneger in the lead role. The sci-fi thriller, set in a dystopian future, is centered around Ben Richards, who enters a TV game show in which convicted criminals, known as “runners,” fight for their lives while being hunted down by professional killers.

Over 37 years later, The Running Man is receiving a remake with Edgar Wright as the director, Michael Bacall as the screenwriter, and action star Glen Powell leading the cast as Ben Richards. Powell’s casting was recently announced at CinemaCon during Paramount’s panel, which arrived amid more teases for his upcoming movie Twisters, a sequel to the 1996 Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton-starring disaster film Twister. While The Running Man remake’s cast and crew make its prospects at the box office and with critics more promising than its predecessor, the movie also happens to commit the same potentially harmful book change as the 1987 original.

Glen Powell’s Casting Repeats 1 Problem Stephen King Had With Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Ben Richards

Both oppose the “scrawny” description of Stephen King’s Ben Richards

By casting Glen Powell as Ben Richards in The Running Man, the remake repeats a flaw in the 1987 movie’s translation of the Stephen King-created character from book to screen. In an introduction to his 1996 edition of The Bachman Books collection, Stephen King noted that the Ben Richards he wrote in the book was “as far from the Arnold Schwarzenegger character in the movie as you can get.” King’s version of Richards was described as scrawny and an average person one would pass by on the street, which certainly didn’t apply to former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenneger, and still isn’t representative of Top Gun: Maverick’s Glen Powell.

Ben Richards’ potential to succeed in The Running Man’s highly deadly TV game show must be doubted by the audiences in order for the suspense of the story to work, and his smaller physique in the book helped accomplish this. On the other hand, Glen Powell, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, brings a physical prowess to the table that takes away a great portion of doubt in his version of Ben Richards. In this way, it seems Glen Powell’s The Running Man is taking some significant inspiration from the 1987 movie for Ben Richards’ portrayal as opposed to his description in the book, as the former made his physical capacity an important part of his entry into the game.

The Running Man Remake Can Still Stay More Faithful To Stephen King’s Book Than The 1987 Movie

The movie was hurt by departing so much from King’s novel

While still incredibly exciting, Glen Powell’s casting confirms a departure from The Running Man book in the upcoming movie remake. It’s unclear how much the movie will balance being faithful to the 1987 film’s depiction of the story of King’s original narrative, but the Schwarzenegger adaptation’s average 67% score on Rotten Tomatoes indicates that Wright’s remake may be better served by remaining faithful to the novel. Diverging so much from Stephen King’s book was a mistake by the 1987 movie, so despite some changes to Ben Richards’ portrayal, Wright’s adaptation of The Running Man will hopefully be more authentic to the main characterizations, relationships, and ending of King’s novel.

Sources: Rotten Tomatoes, The Bachman Books (1996)