Different versions

Due to its many directors, The Running Man went through several radically different incarnations.

George P. Cosmatos’ take was a grim political allegory inspired by his family’s experience under Nazi occupation.

Screenwriter Steven E. de Souza recounrted: “In the draft I did for George, there were roundups, there were concentration camps … His vision was that the one per cent lived in a complete biodome.”

Cosmatos planned to film inside Canada’s West Edmonton Mall and even stage a river-raft chase in the wilderness.

Another director, Ferdinand Fairfax, proposed a meta version in which the whole film would be the actual broadcast of the deadly game.

De Souza recalled: “He made it very British — even having a tea lady stop production mid-show. It was kind of a Monty Python bridge too far.”

Both concepts were scrapped before Paul Michael Glaser delivered the over-the-top cult classic audiences remember.