When a reboot is happening, a lot of the time, we’re against it because the original cast made it into something that was just epic. It’s that, or it is that the original movie was so bad that we want no part in its redemption.
Running Man is one of those movies that fits both sides of that. It was iconic, but it’s also just so bad that we could have lived our entire lives never having to hear about this again.
Granted, our attention was focused when Glen Powell was cast as the lead in the upcoming remake. Now, yes, the first one was released way back in 1987, and we all need to forgive ourselves for ever believing that Arnold Schwarzenegger could act. We need to accept The Running Man for what it is – a story written by Stephen King and that means that parts of it will probably continue to scare the crap out of us.
Powell wasn’t about to do the remake with Schwarzenegger’s blessing. It’s almost as if he was asking for permission to propose (yes, I went there), but it’s actually just the gentleman thing to do.
“Arnold gave us his blessing,” he told People. “[His son] Patrick Schwarzenegger is a great friend of mine, and I asked Patrick if I could talk to Arnold, and I hadn’t seen Arnold since we shot Expendables in Bulgaria.”
Powell added, “Arnold gave us his full blessing, and we get to give Arnold a very specific fun gift from the movie in a couple of weeks here. So I’m very excited to see him.”
The Running Man story follows “Ben Richards, a struggling man who participates in a reality show called The Running Man to win enough money to save his sick daughter.”
It sounds simple enough, but like the TV show is cray cray, like violent.
We think it’s great that Schwarzenegger gave his blessing, but we are curious to know what would have happened if he hadn’t done just that. Either way, we’re going to try and gather the stomach and the courage to watch.
Cause Glen… you have a hold on us.
