Running Man Book Into Film
X_Stickman
Not good enough for a custom title. Join Date: 2003-04-15 Member: 15533Members, Constellation
Not good enough for a custom title. Join Date: 2003-04-15 Member: 15533Members, Constellation
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">No it hasn't happened. IT'S AN IDEA!</div> I'm sure this has been thought of before in many places... But, how good do you think a direct film adaptation of the running man *book* would be.
*THAR BE SPOILERS FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK!*
For those of you who don't know, the original short story (by Stephen King writing under the name of Richard Bachman) bares very little resemblance to the film. The only similarities are the names, the "gameshow" concept and... that's about it. The main character is not a wrongly accused escaped convict, he's just a poor guy who needs money to buy his dying daughter some medication. It ends with him hi-jacking a plane, getting shot in the stomach with an exploding bullet (he wasn't piloting he was just holding the plane ransom with explosives, basically. not a commercial plane, he said he had a lot of explosives that'd take out a huge area unless they gave him a plane etc...), everyone on board the plan dying, and him flying the plane directly into Killian's office (while flipping teh bird through the cockpit).
The gameshow isn't the same either. Basically they give the contestant some money, a video recorder with some cassettes (that they have to send in every week or something, i can't remember properly), and a 24 hour head start. They can go pretty much anywhere in the world (it's not a team of elite hunters like in the film either, it's more of an FBI agency hunting them down), but normal citizens get a reward for spotting them and a bigger reward for information that leads to a kill.
Anyway, i think it would make a fairly good film. There are a few slow points in the book that'd have to be sped up a bit in a film script, but when you consider films like Phone Booth (which i like quite a bit), films nowadays don't have to be a huge action film with guns-a-blazing to be a good (none-romantic/comedy) film.
Opinions! Or lockage if this has been discussed to death in various places, which it probably has.
*THAR BE SPOILERS FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK!*
For those of you who don't know, the original short story (by Stephen King writing under the name of Richard Bachman) bares very little resemblance to the film. The only similarities are the names, the "gameshow" concept and... that's about it. The main character is not a wrongly accused escaped convict, he's just a poor guy who needs money to buy his dying daughter some medication. It ends with him hi-jacking a plane, getting shot in the stomach with an exploding bullet (he wasn't piloting he was just holding the plane ransom with explosives, basically. not a commercial plane, he said he had a lot of explosives that'd take out a huge area unless they gave him a plane etc...), everyone on board the plan dying, and him flying the plane directly into Killian's office (while flipping teh bird through the cockpit).
The gameshow isn't the same either. Basically they give the contestant some money, a video recorder with some cassettes (that they have to send in every week or something, i can't remember properly), and a 24 hour head start. They can go pretty much anywhere in the world (it's not a team of elite hunters like in the film either, it's more of an FBI agency hunting them down), but normal citizens get a reward for spotting them and a bigger reward for information that leads to a kill.
Anyway, i think it would make a fairly good film. There are a few slow points in the book that'd have to be sped up a bit in a film script, but when you consider films like Phone Booth (which i like quite a bit), films nowadays don't have to be a huge action film with guns-a-blazing to be a good (none-romantic/comedy) film.
Opinions! Or lockage if this has been discussed to death in various places, which it probably has.
Comments
eh?
eh? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's the film that's nothing at all like the book. What i'm suggesting is a film of The Running Man that follows the book as closely as, say, The Green Mile (film) does.
i read some of stephen king a bit but i aint read running man but i plan to <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
i read some of stephen king a bit but i aint read running man but i plan to <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Agreed. Cool in a mindless action movie kind of way, but cool nonetheless.