Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Shaun of the Dead) serves as the director and co-writer for the new The Running Man film. Playing the lead role of Ben Richards is Glen Powell, who must survive a deadly reality TV show. On his trail is Lee Pace as Evan McCone, the leader of the hunters.

If the actors were to be in a real-life The Running Man, how would they plan things?

“I think about this a lot,” Pace tells Nerd Reactor. “The most difficult thing about the game is that you have to mail those tapes in, right? So you have to stay in a place where you’re vulnerable to other people spotting you. Because my plan would be to go out into the middle of the wilderness and hide out, take a boat into the ocean where no one’s going to find you.

“But you got to mail the tapes in. So I would do what Ben Richards does, which is look to my friends. Find friends, and find help along the way. No one can do it alone. No one’s going to get out. No one’s going to do it alone. Whenever you’re having a hard time in your life and the odds are against you, you got to reach out for help.”

One of the elements that Wright wanted to capture for the film was focusing on the point of view of Ben Richards.

“A big part of the book to me that was really powerful to me, because I read it as a teenager and I read it before I’d seen the 1987 film, is that the entire film is from Ben Richards’ point of view, as it is in the novel, which really stayed with me,” Wright explained. “And this is something that I read nearly 40 years ago. And I thought that in terms of working on the adaptation, it’s absolutely what we wanted to bring to the screen. It’s like, you’re with Ben Richards in every scene, and you experience the game as he does. You don’t cut away to the baddies. You don’t cut back to the network building. You stay with Ben Richards. And I hope that makes it a much more thrilling experience.”

Powell sees Ben as this character who represents the frustration and anger of everyone in that world.

“There’s this power, this network, that is keeping everybody down,” Powell explained. “It’s this oppressive system that doesn’t allow people to win, no matter how hard they work. I think that sort of frustration is something that I feel is universal in all of us. The world that Stephen King built is very much the world we live in right now. Even though it looks a little different, you can see a lot of overlaps. The Venn Diagram in the middle is eerily large, and I just wanted to embody that universal idea of the underdog, the guy who is taking on the system, the ordinary guy against extraordinary odds.”

About The Running Man

Synopsis: In a near-future society, The Running Man is the top-rated show on television—a deadly competition where contestants, known as Runners, must survive 30 days while being hunted by professional assassins, with every move broadcast to a bloodthirsty public and each day bringing a greater cash reward. Desperate to save his sick daughter, working-class Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is convinced by the show’s charming but ruthless producer, Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), to enter the game as a last resort. But Ben’s defiance, instincts, and grit turn him into an unexpected fan favorite—and a threat to the entire system. As ratings skyrocket, so does the danger, and Ben must outwit not just the Hunters, but a nation addicted to watching him fall.

The film is directed by Edgar Wright and written by Michael Bacall and Michael Bacall & Edgar Wright. It’s based on the novel by Stephen King.

Joining Glen Powell are William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Michael Cera, Emilia Jones, Daniel Ezra, Jayme Lawson, Sean Hayes, Katy O’Brian with Colman Domingo and Josh Brolin.

The Running Man dashes into theaters on November 14, 2025.