Exclusive: The Running Man director Edgar Wright was ‘desperate’ for Stephen King’s approval

Making an adaptation is always risky, but Edgar Wright’s The Running Man — a movie adaptation of Stephen King’s iconic novel — was a risk to take for the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World director.

One of the risks is making changes to source material that many are familiar with. Wright’s Running Man movie trims the fat off some of the denser parts of King’s novel, and it works out for the better. The ending is also completely different from the book, which was a bold move to make.

King was also a producer of The Running Man movie, adding some pressure to Wright to get it right. Wright has been working on his adaptation for almost a half-decade, so he’s had lots of time to develop his ideas. He had been in touch with King for a while, but that didn’t make sending the script to him any easier.

“Sending the script to Stephen, [with] whom I had been in contact over the years, he’s been very generous to say nice things about my previous movies. I was, obviously, very nervous about sending my adaptation to him — obviously, we were desperate for his approval,” Wright recalled. “When we did eventually send the script — by this point, we’d been working on it for a couple of years — he loved the adaptation, which was great.”

Stephen King’s approval of Edgar Wright’s Running Man adaptation was good and bad

Still, Wright saw King’s approval as a “blessing and a curse.” Why? “It creates a new pressure,” Wright elaborated, that now he has to make the movie in his and King’s head, and live up to their lofty standards.

“When you are writing something as a director, you have to live up to the movie that’s in your head,” Wright explained. “But now, I also had to live up to the movie that’s in his head.”

He conceded that throughout the filming of The Running Man, Wright was likely thinking, “I hope Stephen King likes this,” as he said with a laugh. Luckily, King praised Wright’s work and called it “terrific fun” on Nov. 17, 2025.

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