Arnold Schwarzenegger has played some of the most iconic roles that are part of pop culture. He has been in sci-fi classics like The Terminator and Total Recall, has been in legendary action films such as Commando, Predator, and True Lies, and has also given classic comedies such as Jingle All The Way.
As a star, Schwarzenegger had considerable power over the scripts he chose. His star power influenced the direction in which the films would take in order to cater to his image. One such film was The Running Man, an adaptation of a Stephen King book, which had a huge change in its characterization that led to a disappointing box office performance.
Arnold Schwarzenegger In The Running Man
After his breakthrough role in the period action film Conan the Barbarian and its sequel Conan the Destroyer, Arnold Schwarzenegger was at the peak of his stardom in the 1980s. He appeared in the now iconic The Terminator, where he starred as the antagonist and also became the action star of the decade with films such as Predator, Commando, and Last Action Hero. While his films were largely successful, there were some duds at the box office. One of them was The Running Man.
The Running Man was a dystopian horror film that was set in the then far-future of 2017. It followed the story of Ben Richards, who participates in a reality television game show where contestants, who are convicted criminals must escape professional killers who are out to kill them. If the contestants manage to beat the killers, they get an official pardon for their charges. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Richards, a police helicopter pilot who is arrested after he refuses to open fire on protestors and is forced to participate in the show.
The Running Man opened to mixed reviews and a disappointing opening at the box office. The film only earned a meager $38 million against a $27 million budget and was declared a flop. The film received criticisms for its weak satire and for turning the source material into a template action film.
Was The Script Changed To Accommodate Arnold Schwarzenegger?
The Running Man was very loosely adapted from a novel of the same name written by legendary horror writer Stephen King. The novel was published under his pseudonym Richard Bachman. The novel also deals with the same game show, however, the characterization of the protagonist Ben Richards starkly differs. Many criticisms of the film also pointed out its deviation from the source material. According to screenwriter Steven E. de Souza, the changes were made to accommodate Arnold Schwarzenegger’s image.
The original Ben Richards in the novel is an unemployed man who is forced by circumstance to participate in the game show. The idea of the game show is also different as the survivor wins money at the end of it as opposed to an official pardon. The show in the novels was also open to the general public. However, many changes were made as it was impossible to depict Schwarzenegger as an unemployed man.
Talking about the film with Cinema Blend, screenwriter Steven E. de Souza said,
“…when I got into it, when I had my first meeting, I said, ‘Look this story is about a dystopian future that is so bad everybody is unemployed. I have a hard time believing Arnold Schwarzenegger is unemployed, even in a dystopian future!’’
The film came to de Souza for a rewrite as, according to him, was written by a producer who had never written a screenplay before. Hence, the Die Hard writer decided to change things up once Schwarzenegger was attached to the role. Regarding his decision to change, de Souza further says,
“I mean, [he] couldn’t get a job delivering pianos door to door? I mean, they need somebody to like put the wall up to keep out the [zombies]. It’s just impossible to believe looking at him that he can’t get work.”
While the changes might have led to the film’s box office failures, The Running Man has since been revisited and is considered one of Schwarzenegger’s best films of the decade. The film is also reported to get another adaptation, with Baby Driver director Edgar Wright on board.
Source: Cinema Blend
