Stephen King’s The Running Man has long been remembered as one of his more dystopian novels, originally written under his pseudonym Richard Bachman. The 2025 reboot, directed by Edgar Wright and starring Glen Powell, has so far earned $33 million at the worldwide box office (via The Numbers).
The film is soon expected to take over the original film, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which grossed $38 million at the global box office (via The Numbers). Moreover, the reboot is also expected to take over another one of King’s adaptations: Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
The 1980 flick, which King has famously detested over the years, grossed $46 million at the box office (via The Numbers). Even though the reboot’s box office run so far and reviews have been disappointing at best, it may very well take over both these flicks in the upcoming weeks.
Why Did Stephen King Dislike Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining?
Stephen King’s issues with film adaptations of his work extend beyond The Running Man. One of his most outspoken criticisms has been aimed at Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of The Shining. King described Kubrick’s version as too cold (via Paris Review) and emotionally distant, as if the characters were ants in an ant hill (via The David Letterman Show).
The author has spoken extensively about why he dislikes Kubrick’s version so much. In an interview with the BBC in 2013, King revealed he was disappointed by Kubrick’s cold approach towards his novel.
I’m not a cold guy. I think one of the things people relate to in my books is this warmth, there’s a reaching out and saying to the reader, ‘I want you to be a part of this.’ With Kubrick’s The Shining I felt that it was very cold…
He was also irked by the filmmaker’s decision to change the original ending. Furthermore, he did not like the characterization in the film, whether it be Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance (via Deadline) or Shelley Duvall’s Wendy Torrance.
Furthermore, the two also had a personality clash, as King revealed to Deadline in 2016.
I think he did some terrific things but, boy, he was a really insular man. In the sense that when you met him, and when you talked to him, he was able to interact in a perfectly normal way but you never felt like he was all the way there. He was inside himself.
As a result, the author ended up commissioning a TV miniseries of The Shining in 1997, personally involved in each aspect. While he detests Kubrick’s adaptation, he is more fond of Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep, the sequel, crediting the film for warming up his feelings towards Kubrick’s version (via Entertainment Weekly).
Original The Running Man Writer Reacts to Glen Powell’s Version
While Stephen King has approved Glen Powell-starrer The Running Man (via X), calling it a Die Hard for our time and a bipartisan thrill ride, Steven E. De Souza, the screenwriter behind the 1987 film, has also voiced his support.
De Souza, who also has an additional literary material credit on the Edgar Wright film, revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he was totally rooting for the reboot.
I was totally rooting for it because I figured the more people see this movie, [then they] will want to go out and rent the old one, just for comparison’s sakes. So, win-win.
He read Wright’s screenplay and felt that the ending, while different from King’s original bleak finale, worked well on paper. During his interview, De Souza explained that both the 1987 version and the 2025 adaptation tweak the ending of King’s novel because the book’s original ending is a downer.
I would say that both the ’87 version and this version tweak the ending in pretty much the same way, except that in our version, we had less money, so it’s a little simpler.
He also quipped that while the ending in both his version and the latest film did not really stick well with the audiences, maybe the third version in 2045 will stick the landing.
Well, what do you think about the reboot?
The Running Man is in theatres now, while the original and The Shining can be rented on Amazon Prime Video.
