- calendar_today August 19, 2025
First Trailer for Edgar Wright’s The Running Man Unveiled
Paramount Pictures today dropped the first trailer for The Running Man (2025), the latest film project from writer-director Edgar Wright. Wright’s film is a new adaptation of Stephen King’s 1982 dystopian action thriller of the same name, which he originally published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
The Bachman original is a sharp, satirical, and distinctly violent tale of totalitarian America and state propaganda via televisual bloodsport—a dark mirror of the Reagan ‘80s in which the novel is set. It is notably different from the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle of the same name that the Italian action star took on in 1987.
The Running Man is among a handful of novels written by King in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s using the Bachman pseudonym. The author’s real identity was not revealed until 1984. The Running Man was reportedly completed in only a week, but it has endured over the years to become one of Bachman’s most popular novels.
Set in a decaying America in the year 2025 (the same year as the film’s release), The Running Man follows Ben Richards, an average man living in “Co-Op City” in the city of New York with his wife and daughter, who is dying of cancer. With his wife pregnant and jobless after being blacklisted by the government, Richards decides to take a fatal risk by joining America’s number one primetime TV program: The Running Man.
The Running Man is a violent game show in which contestants, referred to as Runners, are hunted down by professional hitmen known as Hunters, and the public gets to watch as they are stalked and slaughtered on live television. In the book, Richards is described as “scrawny,” “pre-tubercular,” and impoverished. Ben Richards is branded an enemy of the state, and the game begins: his last words to his wife are “Don’t lose faith.” He is given a 12-hour head start and is on the run from the Hunters.
The rules of the game are simple: if a contestant survives 30 days, they are declared the winner and awarded $1 billion. However, only the bravest contestants will have a shot at this, as no one has even made it past 197 hours. Contestants are awarded $5,000 an hour for every day they survive, while each Hunter the Runner they dispatch comes with a $25,000 bonus. Richards is initially running from the game purely for survival, but his higher-than-average scores and charisma make him a rising star among the show’s viewers.
Like the novel, the premise of the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film The Running Man is a high-concept one. But where King’s book is a gritty, grim satire of media violence, the film follows through on some of its more fantastical sci-fi ideas while becoming a somewhat straightforward Schwarzenegger action blockbuster. Ben Richards, for example, has very little of his protagonist’s desperation and is portrayed as a toned-up, pre-gym version of the former muscular action star. The plot largely sticks to the original, though: the battle is on to make it through 30 days.
Filmmaker Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Baby Driver, Last Night in Soho) has been attached to The Running Man for several years, having first expressed an interest in making the film as far back as 2017. In 2021, Paramount announced that Wright would be making the film with co-writer Michael Bacall. Their vision is set to be far closer to King’s original than the 1987 film, though.
Today’s new trailer appears to support this, introducing us to the gritty and dirtied Glen Powell in the role of Ben Richards. Josh Brolin will play Dan Killian, the game show’s producer who entices Ben to sign up for the deadly game. Ben’s popularity grows as the days pass, and, naturally for a Ben Richards story, he is both adored by the American people and also represents a threat to the state.
Lee Pace will play Evan McCone, the lead Hunter on Ben Richards’ case. Jayme Lawson will play his wife, Sheila. Colman Domingo will be Bobby Thompson, the host of the Running Man game show. Michael Cera will play Bradley Throckmorton in a role described as a rebel. Other cast members announced include William H. Macy, David Zayas, Emilia Jones, Karl Glusman, Katy O’Brian, and Daniel Ezra.
The Running Man arrives in theaters on November 7, 2025.
Something Else in the Works from Bachman
Stephen King fans will not have to wait long for another run with the author’s Bachman work, as another of the author’s dystopian competition novels, The Long Walk, has also been greenlit as a feature film. That film is set to arrive on September 12, 2025, a full two months before The Running Man’s November 7 release.
Based on a novel first published in 1979, The Long Walk has also undergone several film and TV adaptations over the years. But this is the first adaptation with financial backing, with filming to begin later this year. The Long Walk will be distributed by Bleecker Street and produced by Blumhouse.
It follows a similar vein to The Running Man, and both are inspired by the author’s discontent with the dark and gruesome realism of television of the time. The government’s control of America is the central theme of both novels, and both comment on hthe ow entertainment, the media, capitalism, and viewer empathy have collided into various cultural rituals and traditions.
