Movie rights to ‘The Running Man’ were sold without the producer knowing Stephen King wrote it

The cinema audience was delighted this week by the first trailer for the update led by Glen Powell of the Science Fiction Thriller of the 1980s The racing man. (And you should run To consult the exclusive photos and stories of EW of the Ensemble, if you have not already done so.)

Director Edgar Wright, better known for Shaun of the dead And Hot Fuzzbrought together an exceptional cast to join Powell for his race against television predatory capitalism, notably Josh Brolin, Michael Cera, Katy O’Brian, Lee Pace, William H. Macy, Emilia Jones and Colman Domingo. Looking at the initial promotional clip, you will certainly see many similarities with the first film, but there are in fact considerable differences.

Wright’s film, which he wrote with his Scott Pilgrim against the world the employee Michael Bacall, who also helped to bring 21 Jump Street On the screen, is actually much closer to Stephen King’s original novel on which he is based.

“Wait, pull it,” you may think. “”The racing manWith an Arnold Schwarzenegger and Yaphet Kotto turned by the guy of the guy Family quarrel Was written by Stephen King? “Well, if you didn’t know, don’t feel bad. In fact, the producer of the original film had no idea of ​​buying rights.

The racing manIn which economically desperate people participate in a deadly game program, was published for the first time in 1982 by a Richard Bachman, the fourth of the seven of Bachman novels. At the time of its release, no one knew it was a pseudonym.

King, already a success with Carrie And ‘Lot of Salemfeared to sweat the market at the start of his career, but his prolific pen continued to move. He also liked to know that his work was accepted by publishers on his own conditions, not just the value of his commodity name.

The Master of Horror Classic who loves rock, inspired by the Bachman-Turner Overdrive group, has selected the name of the pen for its work-study works. He would have continued as King and Bachman (indeed, Misery was intended for a book by Bachman) without a bookseller from Washington, DC, a bookseller who suspected something. (Bachman, “Died of Exhibition”, in 1985, and later Bachman Books was “posthumously published”.)

Although in the mid -80s, Hollywood pumped King adaptations at a fierce pace, there was not yet a film based on one of Bachman’s works. (Since then, there has been a cinematographic version of Diluent And later this year, we will see The long walk.) As such, when the young producer Rob Cohen (later the director of the first The rapid and the furious Film) sought to acquire the adaptation rights on the property, he did not know what he was performing in.

In a 2019 interview with SFX Magazine,, The racing manThe screenwriter, Steven E. de Souza, said that Cohen did not know the true identity of Bachman.

“”[He] I wondered why the rights were so expensive, “from Souza, who also wrote 48 hours. And Die hardsaid.

Originally, the film was going to showcase Christopher Reeve and stick to the very dark tone of the book. Over time, Schwarzenegger was thrown, the calendar was compressed one month to one night, and the character is wrongly accused of a crime and strength To compete, he does not volunteer. The finished film, directed by Paul Michael Glaser, a television veteran (and Costar de Starsky & Hutch! Hand bandhas much more quality of WWE than austere realism.

Even if Bachman’s secret was released at the time The racing man Struck in theaters, King insisted that his pseudonym obtained the credit on the screen. (But if we believe the story of De Souza, he has always taken the ransom of a king for rights!)

The trailer for the new film, however, buried Bachman for good. The expression “based on Stephen King’s novel” obtains the All Caps treatment halfway, and it gives each indication that the film will remain faithful to the intrigue of the book. (There is no way to hell, it maintains the same end, however. Wright did Chancy things, but there is no way he can do [SPOILER REMOVED]!

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For nostalgia, here is the trailer for the 1987 version.