Premiere - The Running Man : Los Angeles Premiere on the Paramount Lot Marks Edgar Wright’s Boldest and Most Visionary Reimagining Yet

By Mulder, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Paramount Studios, 29 october 2025

“I’ve seen the movie, and it’s a balls-to-the-wall thrill ride. The feel is like a modern-day DIE HARD” – Stephen King

On October 28, 2025, the Paramount Studios lot in Los Angeles became the beating heart of contemporary genre cinema, as Edgar Wright hosted a dazzling and intimate special screening of The Running Man. The evening, organized just a week before the film’s global release, was not only a showcase of one of the most anticipated sci-fi thrillers of the decade but also a gathering of creative titans who have shaped the last twenty years of pop culture. Among those in attendance were Edgar Wright, his longtime producer Nira Park, co-writer Michael Bacall, and lead actor Glen Powell, who were joined by a who’s who of directors, actors, and creators: Adam Samberg, Joe Dante, Walter Hill, Marc Webb, Patton Oswalt, Mark Romanek, Chris Miller, Phil Lord, Shane Black, Joseph Kahn, Taika Waititi, Daniel Kwan, and even musician Beck. The event had the relaxed confidence of a celebration among peers, but also the electric tension of a filmmaker unveiling his most daring vision to date. The buzz around the Paramount lot that night confirmed it—this was not just another remake. This was a cinematic reckoning.

When Edgar Wright first mentioned his desire to revisit The Running Man in a 2017 tweet, few realized how serious he was. Yet, as the director’s career evolved through Baby Driver and Last Night in Soho, his fascination with rhythm, spectacle, and social critique only deepened. This adaptation of The Running Man—based on Stephen King’s 1982 novel written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman—is not a rehash of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1987 cult favorite, but a restoration of the book’s original dystopian venom. The project was officially greenlit in 2021, produced by Simon Kinberg and Audrey Chon of Genre Films in partnership with Nira Park and Wright’s own Complete Fiction banner. Filming took place from November 2024 to March 2025 in London and at the iconic Wembley Stadium, where some of the most breathtaking sequences were captured. When early footage was presented at CinemaCon 2025 by Colman Domingo, Josh Brolin, Glen Powell, and Edgar Wright, the reaction was instant and unanimous: this was a bold reinvention of the dystopian genre, one that could only have come from Wright’s mind.

The Los Angeles premiere served as the culmination of that creative journey. Guests arrived at sunset, the Paramount gate lit by deep crimson hues evoking the film’s oppressive tone. As the screening began, attendees were reminded of how singular Wright’s approach truly is. He has never been content with empty homage—his films always throb with urgency and rhythm, their comedy carrying a pulse of critique. The Running Man, in his hands, becomes both a relentless survival story and a mirror held up to a society addicted to spectacle and self-destruction. The irony of premiering a film about a deadly game show inside the grounds of a studio that has produced some of the most iconic televised moments in American history wasn’t lost on anyone in attendance. As one producer whispered afterward, “It’s like the ghosts of Hollywood’s past are applauding him.”

What distinguishes Wright’s version from previous iterations is its fidelity to Stephen King’s raw anger. Written in just one week, the original novel was an unflinching indictment of economic collapse and media cruelty. In Wright’s adaptation, Glen Powell embodies Ben Richards not as a swaggering hero but as a desperate man—a worker crushed by systemic failure who volunteers for the titular show to save his dying daughter. His mission is not glory, but survival. The film’s premise, where contestants known as Runners must survive thirty days while being hunted by state-sponsored assassins, becomes a savage metaphor for our own age of gamified suffering and influencer voyeurism. During production, Glen Powell reportedly reached out to Arnold Schwarzenegger for his blessing, a gesture of humility that symbolically united the old and new eras of cinematic dystopia. The two men’s exchange, as recounted by Powell in interviews, was mutual respect distilled: “He told me to make Ben mine. And to run like hell.”

The brilliance of this adaptation lies in its tonal agility. Co-written with Michael Bacall, The Running Man straddles black comedy and social horror without ever losing emotional gravity. Wright uses satire not to mock, but to cut—turning every visual flourish into commentary. Early viewers have noted how the film’s opening sequence echoes the cold efficiency of modern advertising, with contestants being marketed like luxury products. As the story progresses, that sleek aesthetic corrodes into chaos, reflecting the degradation of humanity under mass entertainment. The use of practical effects over digital spectacle further grounds the violence, making every chase and every death feel disturbingly real. It’s the kind of craftsmanship that recalls the practical ingenuity of George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, but filtered through Wright’s rhythmically charged lens.

Technically, the film assembles a dream team. Chung Chung-hoon, who previously collaborated with Wright on Last Night in Soho, delivers cinematography that oscillates between claustrophobic grit and hallucinatory grandeur. Editor Paul Machliss, a longtime Wright collaborator, sculpts the film’s pacing with surgical precision—every cut syncing to breath, heartbeat, or drumbeat, turning the act of editing into its own choreography. Even the soundtrack operates as a character, led by a remixed version of Underdog by Sly and the Family Stone, which plays during a pivotal chase scene and instantly became a talking point after the trailer’s release. The film’s marketing, too, has been nothing short of ingenious. Its trailer debuted through a viral influencer skit by Ashton Hall, cleverly blurring the lines between reality and fiction—a perfect nod to the film’s critique of a world where everyone’s life is content.

Beyond its technical achievements, The Running Man strikes a nerve because of how acutely it reflects the times. In 2025, conversations around artificial intelligence, digital surveillance, and media addiction dominate cultural discourse. Wright’s film weaponizes these anxieties, turning them into visual and emotional ammunition. The corporate-run game show of King’s novel feels eerily close to our reality of algorithmic fame and moral fatigue. The show’s ruthless producer, Dan Killian—portrayed here with a chilling magnetism by one of Wright’s mystery castings—is not just a villain but a prophet of our mediated apocalypse. In Wright’s world, the audience’s complicity is the true horror. Each cheer, each click, each view becomes a form of consent.

The ensemble cast amplifies the story’s impact. Alongside Glen Powell, the film features William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Emilia Jones, Michael Cera, Daniel Ezra, Sean Hayes, Jayme Lawson, Colman Domingo, and Josh Brolin, all contributing distinct shades to this vision of moral collapse. Particularly striking is Colman Domingo’s presence, who lends quiet authority to the narrative’s moments of chaos, and Emilia Jones, whose performance reportedly anchors the film’s emotional center. Together, they form the backbone of a film that refuses to be predictable, oscillating between satire, tragedy, and explosive catharsis.

As the Los Angeles screening concluded, applause filled the theater—not the polite kind, but the long, heavy kind that signals both admiration and unease. The Running Man doesn’t end with comfort; it ends with confrontation. In one of the film’s rumored climaxes, Ben Richards turns the spectacle back on its creators, an act that transforms the movie into something more than entertainment—it becomes rebellion. For Edgar Wright, a director whose filmography has always danced between humor and heartbreak, this may well be his masterpiece. As Nira Park was overheard saying at the afterparty, “He finally made the film he’s been running toward his whole career.”

With its U.S. release set for November 14, 2025, followed by its French debut on November 19, The Running Man arrives as more than a blockbuster. It’s a warning, a mirror, and a challenge. In a time when every image we consume seems designed to keep us watching, Edgar Wright dares to ask the one question no algorithm ever will: what happens when the game stops being fun? If the response at the Paramount premiere is any indication, audiences are about to find out.

Synopsis :
In the near future, The Running Man is the number one show on television: a ruthless survival game where contestants, known as Runners, must escape professional killers for 30 days, under the watchful eye of a captivated audience. Each day that passes increases the prize money—and provides an ever-more intense adrenaline rush. Ben Richards, a desperate worker willing to do anything to save his seriously ill daughter, accepts the unthinkable: to take part in this deadly show, pushed by Dan Killian, its charismatic and cruel producer. But no one could have predicted that Ben, with his will to live, his instincts, and his determination, would become a true hero of the people... and a threat to the entire system. As ratings skyrocket, the danger escalates. Ben will have to face much more than the Hunters: he will have to face an entire country addicted to seeing him fall.

The Running Man
Directed by Edgar Wright
Written by Michael Bacall, Edgar Wright
Based on The Running Man by Stephen King (as Richard Bachman)
Produced by Edgar Wright, Nira Park, Simon Kinberg
Starring Glen Powell, William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Emilia Jones, Michael Cera, Daniel Ezra, Sean Hayes, Jayme Lawson, Colman Domingo, Josh Brolin
Cinematography : Chung Chung-hoon
Edited by Paul Machliss
Production companies : Genre Films, Complete Fiction
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date : November 14, 2025 (United States), November 19, 2025 (France)