The Running Man Edgar Wright film being made thoughts?

[Backyard8405]

Edgar Wright is adapting the Stephen King novel 'The Running Man' into a film that the goal I believe is to be a faithful adaptation compared to the Arnold Schwarzenegger film.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/m...-star-in-edgar-wright-running-man-1235871731/

I think its main challenges are the fact that the premise is the same as the hunger games and we have already had four films of that. I haven't read the book or seen the older film so don't know the plot or how it differs or what is unique about it. curious of your thoughts those who have and haven't read the book. please spoiler plot spoilers.

EDIT: People have corrected me it is quite dissimilar from 'The Hunger Games'.

 

[Stab You in the Back]

I think its main challenges are the fact that the premise is the same as the hunger games and we have already had four films of that.

Have you read the actual book? While there are some facial similarities, the substantive premise is nothing like the Hunger Games.


edit: Paul Feig's Jackpot! starring Awkwafina and John Cena is actually more on point to the book than the Hunger Games. Its free on Amazon Prime if anybody wants to watch it. (this is not a recommendation)

 

[isalaide]

Not a fan of Edgar Wright's work so I will probably give it a miss.

 

[Backyard8405]

Have you read the actual book? While there are some facial similarities, the substantive premise is nothing like the Hunger Games.


edit: Paul Feig's Jackpot! starring Awkwafina and John Cena is actually more on point to the book than the Hunger Games. Its free on Amazon Prime if anybody wants to watch it. (this is not a recommendation)

no i haven't read the book as i said in my post. im thinking about it though.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Out of curiosity read the book synopsis and can't really see the point of it being a faithful adaption. The era of violence on tv has long gone, and at best you could do it some sort of social media Tik Tok esque Mr. Beast "survive 30 days" challenge that won't really have a point besides stock "social media is evil and degrading".

Modern entertainment is incredibly pussified, having any sort of death battle livestreamed to the general populace is unthinkable these days. At best I can see the government using Redditors to catch the monthly "enemy of the state" to divert them from how shit everything is.

I'd rather have the dumb Arnie film then yet another "death battles are evil" plot.

 

[Product Placement]

I like all the movies he has made outside Scott Pilgrim. If it was a remake of the Arnie movie, would be against it, but from everything I've heard it will be much closer to the book.

Won't going to the cinema to see it, but more than happy to give it a chance when it hits torrents.

 

[The Nothingness]

What I remember from the book is the main character is not a likable guy and it ends with him doing a 9/11 to the building that airs the titular show. If this going to a faithful adaptation, I wonder if it will keep that ending.

 

[Get the rope Macaulay!]

It depends on the trailer but honestly every film of edgar's the last dozen years or so has been hilariously bland. i hated Baby Driver, and its obvious that the script was written in the late 90s and it was all style, but because of how cheaply it was made it didn't have much style to make up for its lack of substance. I forget why i disliked Soho, but i think its because i just don't enjoy that type of film.

I feel this will just be a paycheck for Edgar, i don't expect him to make the film or the show in the film exciting.

: Paul Feig's Jackpot! starring Awkwafina and John Cena is actually more on point to the book

so you're saying Edgar's film will just be a serious and shitty version of that? that's not good.

Modern entertainment is incredibly pussified, having any sort of death battle livestreamed to the general populace is unthinkable these days. At best I can see the government using Redditors to catch the monthly "enemy of the state" to divert them from how shit everything is.

hell how about just the idea of people willing to focus on a gameshow nowadays? every "hit reality show/Game show" basically gets a couple seasons and dies because people's attention spans are so shit. media in general died once trump got elected because people started blaming them for making people love entertaining, anti-heroes. even the concept of a "death game" has sort of been attempted multiple times now and almost always gets canceled because the concept is so fucking boring, mainly a guy hiding and the fights being so short that you can't really extend the concept over a full tv season without it mostly being dead air.

The Runner and Cha$e are two examples from just the past 20 years of basically "the running man" and they sucked. The Runner was also hosted by MatPat so even the whole "the host is an e-celeb" thing has also been played out.

 

[Red flaming panda]

Can people stop remaking/making films based off the work of the massive hack, Steven King already.

 

[Dysnomia]

What I remember from the book is the main character is not a likable guy and it ends with him doing a 9/11 to the building that airs the titular show. If this going to a faithful adaptation, I wonder if it will keep that ending.

It's been awhile and I lost The Bachman Books in a move a long time ago. But I remember the setting is a dystopian nightmare that uses reality TV to placate the needs of the poor. If you need a transplant for instance you have to compete for one on a grueling gameshow. I think there was a guy who dies on a treadmill desperately hoping to win a new heart or lung.

MC's daughter is deathly ill and he can't afford medicine. So he competes on The Running Man. I think the girl dies anyway. Which is one of the reasons for the ending being the way it is.

Instead of being locked down in a complex with a bunch of other wannabe American Gladiators you are just on the run like a fugitive. People can report you to authorities if I see you. I think they get get some compensation or trophy or something if they do. If you make it to the goal without being captured then your wish is granted. Your chance of making it through the game alive are very slim.

The book was written in 1982, long before stupid reality game shows like Survivor and Naked and Afraid. I remember when Survivor premiered I thought The Running Man predicted the future of TV. It was also written way before The Hunger Games so it's in no way a ripoff and really isn't that similar.

The Bachman Books has a running theme. There's two dystopian novellas and two about being mad as hell and not taking it anymore. Rage was taken out of the collection because of multiple school shootings. In one incident the shooter had the book in his locker. Essentially, the author banned his own book.

The Long Walk is getting an adaption. Rage obviously never will. Roadwork might be interesting. Man refuses to leave home set to be demolished for a highway extension. Many explosions ensue.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

hell how about just the idea of people willing to focus on a gameshow nowadays? every "hit reality show/Game show" basically gets a couple seasons and dies because people's attention spans are so shit. media in general died once trump got elected because people started blaming them for making people love entertaining, anti-heroes. even the concept of a "death game" has sort of been attempted multiple times now and almost always gets canceled because the concept is so fucking boring, mainly a guy hiding and the fights being so short that you can't really extend the concept over a full tv season without it mostly being dead air.

The Runner and Cha$e are two examples from just the past 20 years of basically "the running man" and they sucked. The Runner was also hosted by MatPat so even the whole "the host is an e-celeb" thing has also been played out.

At least in Battle Royale you can have less downtime between events, a single fugitive is just not interesting, especially when the game area is the entire world while smartphones make hiding yourself impossible.

And even then people would rather watch Fortnite players than a regular Joe dying pathetically.

In the end the dystopia story no longer works because we are currently living in the gayest dystopia imaginable. I would rather have the live broadcast death battles than seeing trannies in every new media.

 

[Idiotron]

I hope it's going to be the same situation as with Thing From Another World and The Thing where they both adapted the same source material but the 1st movie was very different from it while the 2nd one was closer.
Arnie's Running Man isn't like the story, maybe Wright will make a more faithful adaptation.
Not to mention, technology changed a lot, entertainment as well.
It would be nice to update this premise for the modern age.

 

[Backyard8405]

Have you read the actual book? While there are some facial similarities, the substantive premise is nothing like the Hunger Games.


edit: Paul Feig's Jackpot! starring Awkwafina and John Cena is actually more on point to the book than the Hunger Games. Its free on Amazon Prime if anybody wants to watch it. (this is not a recommendation)

that jackpot film looked really bad and cringe

 

[Calandrino]

Obviously they should just actually produce the gameshow from the movie/book. That be way more badass than some dumb social commentary movie.

Big money! Big prizes! I love it!

 

[Dan of Steel]

will Jesse "The Body" Ventura be in this one too?

 

[Stab You in the Back]

Stephen King's coke-fueled books are the only ones worth reading. Pick up The Running Man, you slobs.

that jackpot film looked really bad and cringe

It stars Awkwafina, so yeah.

 

[ElHijodeDeficienciaCogni]

Awkwafina

That is not a real human being's name. I refuse to believe that someone named their kid after bottled water but niggard up the spelling to that degree.

 

[Backyard8405]

Stephen King's coke-fueled books are the only ones worth reading. Pick up The Running Man, you slobs.


It stars Awkwafina, so yeah.

honestly john cena should have had more self respect for himself

 

[Maniacal Foreigner]

That is not a real human being's name. I refuse to believe that someone named their kid after bottled water but niggard up the spelling to that degree.

It's a stage name. Still cringe.

 

[grump]

Out of curiosity read the book synopsis and can't really see the point of it being a faithful adaption. The era of violence on tv has long gone, and at best you could do it some sort of social media Tik Tok esque Mr. Beast "survive 30 days" challenge that won't really have a point besides stock "social media is evil and degrading".

Modern entertainment is incredibly pussified, having any sort of death battle livestreamed to the general populace is unthinkable these days. At best I can see the government using Redditors to catch the monthly "enemy of the state" to divert them from how shit everything is.

I'd rather have the dumb Arnie film then yet another "death battles are evil" plot.

It would have made a lot of sense in the Reality TV era but thats been gone for years. I guess they could kind of update it to the era of Influencer stunts but there goes the faithful adaptation.