Despite a slew of rumors to the contrary, it looks like Anyone But You co-stars Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney will NOT be re-teaming on Edgar Wright’s upcoming adaptation of The Running Man. This rumour had been picking up steam recently, with many outlets claiming an official announcement of the two re-teaming was imminent. Collider debunked the rumor with them noting unnamed sources as saying she had never been involved. While I suppose they could be wrong, I tend to take Collider’s word on this one, as it seemed unlikely the two would re-team so shortly after Anyone But You, despite them having said to be looking for future projects to collaborate on.
If anything, I can understand why this rumour started. The Running Man remake is set to be directed by Edgar Wright, who also has a Barbarella remake in the works with Sweeney. The Running Man is based on the dystopian Stephen King novel, which he wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It was previously filmed as the Arnold Schwarzenegger action classic of the same name in 1987, although the movie was a very loose adaptation.
Wright has always said that while he liked the Schwarzenegger film, he preferred the book, telling the Happy Sad Confused podcast, “I like the film but I like the book more, and they didn’t really adapt the book. Even as a teenager when I saw the Schwarzenegger film I was like, ‘Oh, this isn’t like the book at all!’ And I think, ‘Nobody’s [done] that book.’ So when that came up, I was thinking, and Simon Kinberg says, ‘Do you have any interest in The Running Man?’ I said, ‘You know what? I’ve often thought that that book is something crying out to be adapted.’ Now, that doesn’t mean that it’s easy! [Laughs] But it’s something that we are working on, yes.”
The Running Man is just one of several projects Glen Powell is attached to, with Jenna Ortega recently signing on to co-star with him in a new film from J.J. Abrams.