The Arnold Schwarzenegger Netflix series “FUBAR” is returning with a second season this week, and the action star is making the press rounds to promote the show and is sharing his optimism about Edgar Wright‘s “The Running Man,” a remake of his 1987 original.
ComicBookResources spoke with the former California Governor about his impressions of Wright’s remake, which he sounds hopeful that the project starring Glen Powell, who once said he got Schwarzenegger’s blessing, will have more money and technology to help execute the vision that Schwarzenegger feels “could have been better.”
“‘Running Man’ was one of the movies that…I think it would have been great if we would have been better prepared for this movie, if we would have had more money for this movie, and if we would have had then… the visual effects, the technology of visual effects, that they have today, all of those things I wished after the movie came out, I felt like it could have been better.”
“It was great, but it could have been better, and I think that they have a good chance now with the new ‘Running Man’ to make it better. And I hope, for their sake and for my sake, I hope that they will be successful.”
Schwazenegger’s sentiment likely comes from the hectic production of his version, as there was quite the shake-up as the movie lost its original director, Andrew Davis (“The Fugitive,” “Under Siege”), after falling a week behind schedule, and there wasn’t much time for turnaround for his replacement, Paul Michael Glaser (known for TV work like “Miami Vice”). In his memoir, “Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story,” Schwarzenegger said that Glaser was an ill-advised choice and had shot the big studio film like it was a TV production (could explain why it hasn’t aged well, visually).
Davis would eventually reunite with the Schwazenegger on the 2002 action pic “Collateral Damage.”
Of course, the movie is based on Stephen King‘s lesser-known dystopian novel, under the pen name Richard Bachman, where our protagonist Ben Richards is thrust into a televised game of death. However, when you compare the movie to John McTiernan‘s “Predator” (released the same year) and Paul Verhoeven‘s 1990 sci-fi spy actioner “Total Recall,” it feels like it could have been a lot closer to the latter but was missing that special sauce despite having a script penned by “Die Hard” and “Commando” screenwriter Steven E. de Souza.
Wright’s movie is said to be much closer to the King novel, which isn’t all that surprising given the original movie felt a little more influenced by the 1980s rather than attempting to explore what the future would be like, then again, we have to assume that it was one of the reasons that cheesy reality sports game show “American Gladiators” became a thing two years later. Although it did have a scene using “Deepfake” technology, and predicted America’s obsession with reality television.
Paramount Pictures is releasing “The Running Man” on November 7 with a cast that also features Colman Domingo, Josh Brolin, Emilia Jones, Michael Cera, Lee Pace, Jayme Lawson, Sean Hayes, David Zayas, and William H. Macy. There is an expectation that we could start seeing stills and footage over the summer.
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
