Running Man (2025)

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

 

So, the second "serious" redo of one of Arnie's 80s classics, trying to go closer to their sourcebooks.

Colin Farrell's Total Recall was way too staid. In Edgar "Trois Saveurs Cornetto" Wright's hands, this one at least seems fun, and explores more of the dystopia Stephen King built (well, his "Richard Bachman" pulpy alterego).

 

The OG plot, instead of Richards' heroics saving a crowd, sees him as a down-on-his-luck schlub scrabbling to pay medical bills. Shut out of work due to political blacklisting, he decides to try his luck on the Games Network (here very knowingly using Netflix iconography.)

 

And no setpiece arenas, though the odd Squid Game gag wouldn't go amiss: instead, he has to make it 30 days. Anywhere in the world is fair game. And while there are still Hunters, everyone can take a crack. Fun!

 

I'm not gonna give away how the rest runs, but there is holy sweet Freya in Asgard NO WAY Paramount could have greenlit the original ending. (If you know, you know.) If they did, this is gonna be all over the news: and I doubt Edgar would be working again for a long time.

 

Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, Hit Man) gets the workout: Josh Brolin takes a more relaxed, reptilian approach to Killian: and Colman Domingo (Euphoria) brings the energy as the show's host Bobby Thompson. Add in Lee Pace, William H. Macy, and a near-unrecognisable Michael Cera channeling Richard Dreyfuss...

...certainly looks like good popcorn material, though depending on how close they hew to the book, it could get a lot grimdark.

 

What do you lot think?

 

Edited July 1 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Techwright]

I didn't really take to the trailer.  I like Glen Powell, what few performances I've seen, but it felt like Arnold's Running Man only in a token sense.  I've never read the source material, so I have only the 1980s movie to inform my opinion, and I liked it's over-the-top craziness in a dystopian world.  I've even seen it as somewhat prophetic at times, notably the digital facial replacements.  We're not quite there yet, but we're well underway.  

 

One of the things that irked me was the 1 vs the planet concept.  I liked Arnold's version which had much more to do with comparing a modern "civilized" and "sanitized" audience to the Roman coliseum: people getting entertainment from horrific murders but keeping their hands clean in the bleachers.  So you're saying the 1 vs the planet is closer to the source material?

 

 

Edited July 4 by Techwright
A minor grammatical adjustment

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

10 hours ago, Techwright said:

So you're saying the 1 vs the planet is closer to the source material?

Pretty much: Richards gets twelve hours before the Hunters are unleashed, rather than arena games, and travels to Maine to vanish (because of course Maine).

 

Being pre-Internet when it was written, he originally had to mail tapes twice a day to the studio, and viewers could phone in his location for prizes. The new version adds drone cams, interactive viewer apps and a few modern trappings you'd expect - so you can still have bloodless street vigilantism. But also the odd nutter taking matters into their own hands, which, well... that does kinda track too.

 

On that note, we do have a gameshow called Hunted in the UK that pretty much follows that track to the letter. Other than all the murdery bits. I think it died after one season in the USA.  Though in almost every case, Brits help out contestants rather than ratting on them, because we're still punk.

 

And back in the day, there was an attempt to get even closer to the Arnie formula with Interceptor. It also sadly only ran for one season. I was mildly miffed about that at the time, because Dad and I got addicted to how hilariously bad it was.

 

Except for the theme tune...

 

 

Edited July 5 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Techwright]

6 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

Except for the theme tune...

 

 

 

I...I would not have dreamed Chopin would be used for such a show.  Wow.  🤯

[Ghost]

Honestly, I thought the trailer looked good and that it would be a very exciting mini-series…..

But nope, it’s a movie.  Which means it could end up being a jumbled mess, quickly jumping from one action piece to another.

 

We shall see.