Glen Powell to Star in ‘The Running Man’ for Paramount, Edgar Wright | Exclusive

“Top Gun: Maverick” breakout and rising star Glen Powell is set to lead a new adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Running Man” for Paramount Pictures, TheWrap has exclusively learned.

Edgar Wright is set to direct. Wright and his “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” collaborator Michael Bacall will co-write the story, and Bacall will write the script.

King’s futuristic novel is a chase thriller set in a dystopian America in the year 2025. The story centers on Ben Richards, a desperate man who participates in violent reality show “The Running Man” in order to win enough money to revive his gravely ill daughter. The show follows Richards being chaseded by numerous hunters, sent to kill him.

King first published the “The Running Man” under his pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1982. In 1987, the book was adapted into a movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by Paul Michael Glaser.

Simon Kinberg, Nira Park and Wright are producing.

Powell most recently starred alongside Sydney Sweeney in Sony’s romantic comedy and international box office hit “Anyone But You.” The film is an international sensation grossing over $200 million worldwide. Powell will next be seen in the upcoming action-comedy “Hitman” with Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater, a film he also co-wrote and co-produced. The true story feature, which is already garnering critical acclaim, will premiere in theaters on May 24 and will then be released on Netflix on June 7.

Powell will also soon be seen in Universal’s highly anticipated action sequel “Twisters” directed by Lee Isaac Chung, a new chapter to the 1996 box office hit ‘Twister” that also stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and hits theaters on July 19.

In addition, Powell’s U.S. naval aviation documentary “The Blue Angels” will be released by Amazon’s Prime Video in IMAX theaters on May 17, and streaming on Prime Video on May 23. The film, which he produced alongside J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, chronicles a year in the cockpit with one of the world’s top aviator teams, the Navy and Marine Corps flight squadron, through their intense training and aerial touring show.

Powell will next commence production on the revenge thriller “Huntington” for A24 and Studio Canal with “Emily The Criminal” writer-director John Patton Ford. Additionally, the very busy multihyphenate will co-create, executive produce, and star in the series “Chad Powers,” a half-hour comedy for Hulu based on an Eli Manning sketch about a quarterback whose college career ends after bad behavior. The series hails from 20th Television and will stream on Hulu.

Powell received CinemaCon’s 2022 Star of Tomorrow award and won a Screen Actors Guild Award for his work in the Oscar-nominated film “Hidden Figures” opposite Octavia Spencer, Taraji P. Henson and Kevin Costner, in which he portrayed iconic astronaut John Glenn. Additional past credits include Richard Linklater’s animated sci-fi film “Apollo 10 ½” for Netflix, the 2018 hit romantic comedy “Set it Up” opposite Zoey Deutch, Richard Linklater’s critically acclaimed comedy coming of age drama “Everybody Wants Some,” Ryan Murphy’s series “Scream Queens,” as well as the final installment of the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, “The Dark Knight Rises.” He also voiced a role on Netflix’s animated adventure series “Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous” from Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall and Colin Trevorrow.

Glen Powell is represented by CAA, The Initiative Group, and Johnson, Shapiro, Slewett & Kole.

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