Paramount Pictures debuted the first trailer for Edgar Wright’s take on “The Running Man” on Tuesday, revealing Glen Powell’s Ben Richards evading armed “Hunters” ahead of the film’s 7 November 2025 release. Wright, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Bacall, says his aim is to adapt Stephen King’s 1982 novel—published under the Richard Bachman pseudonym—rather than replicate the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film that departed sharply from the text.
In an interview with Empire, the director called the project “a very intense, dangerous road movie,” underlining the 30-day nationwide manhunt that anchors the plot. Powell echoed that assessment during an Entertainment Weekly set visit, saying the new version “leans hard into the desperation that made the book frighteningly prescient.”
Principal photography wrapped in May after sixteen weeks in the United Kingdom; Glasgow doubled for a corporatized Boston, while an abandoned Welsh mine became the Games Network arena that televises the lethal contest. The ensemble includes Colman Domingo, Katy O’Brian, Josh Brolin, Lee Pace, Michael Cera and Emilia Jones, with veteran Wright collaborators Chung Chung-hoon on cinematography and Paul Machliss in the editing suite.
Paramount is positioning the $120 million production as its marquee autumn tentpole opposite Disney’s “Predator: Prey 2,” opening advance ticket sales on 12 September and locking in IMAX and Dolby Cinema runs. Arnold Schwarzenegger, asked by ScreenRant for his reaction, said the premise “always deserved a more brutal edge” and predicted Wright would “make it better.”
Commentators note the irony that King set his story in 2025—the same year the film premieres—reinforcing its critique of media exploitation and economic inequity. Early projections from Franchise Entertainment Research place the domestic opening near $55 million, fuelled by Powell’s momentum after “Hit Man” and “Twisters.”
