Edgar Wright Directing Stephen King’s The Running Man

Filmmaker Edgar Wright doesn’t know when to stop, which will come in handy with his latest new project, an adaptation of Stephen King‘s The Running Man. Fresh off the premiere of his new documentary The Sparks Brothers and ahead of the release of Last Night in Soho later this year he’s been tapped to direct the film by Paramount Pictures with Deadline reporting that he’ll collaborate with Michael Bacall, who will pen the script, and be more faithful to King’s original novel rather than functioning as a remake of the Arnold Schwarzenegger starring movie from 1987. Former X-Men producer Simon Kinberg will produce.

Originally released as one of King’s “Richard Bachman” books, the story is set in a dystopian world where contestants can enter to appear on the TV show “The Running Man” where they must elude police and authorities for an extended amount of time. If they’re successful they’ll take home a huge cash prize, but for a month’s time they’ll be hunted by men with shoot to kill orders. The original film was directed by Paul Michael Glaser with Schwarzenegger in the lead role and was very loosely based on the original text.

Though Wright’s filmography is primarily original ideas that he’s written himself or co-written with another, he has delved into adaptation before, bringing Scott Pilgrim vs the World to life in 2010 and previously being courted for a remake of An American Werewolf in London (one of his favorite films).

This film marks the latest project that Wright has become attached to in the past year with multiple other adaptations already on his schedule as well. Among them is an adaptation of the novel The Chain for Universal Pictures in addition to Set My Heart to Five, a project about a robot that learns to have emotions by watching movies, and also the film Stage 13 for Amblin Partners based on a short story by Simon Rich. Furthermore Wright’s new production company Complete Fiction has set a slate of new projects at Netflix with both TV and feature films in the works.

In addition this new version of The Running Man marks the latest Stephen King adaptation to hit Hollywood’s development shores as new versions of ‘Salem’s Lot, The Long Walk, The Tommyknockers, From a Buick 8 and Firestarter are all in various stages of development. Recently announced as well was that acclaimed filmmaker Lynne Ramsay will helm The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon To Be. King also rules television screens with an Overlook Hotel series in the works and a ‘Salem’s Lot prequel series on the way.