The Running Man

Marking my 5th collaboration with Edgar Wright, working on The Running Man was something of a dream come true.  Not only am I a huge fan of the book, but the idea of contributing original music to Edgar’s take on this alternate future was incredibly exciting,  As has become the norm, I started writing early on, at script stage, not least because this was really two scores in one,  The brash, manipulative music for the Network’s range of reality shows was something I needed to work on early, and it proved a scary amount of fun, these pieces being played on set as the mighty Colman Domingo and Josh Brolin brought the game show to life.

For the score itself I wanted to find a voice that at once honoured the original movie, but crucially gave both momentum and drive to the journey of Ben Richards, as played by Glen Powell,  I wrote a number of pieces very early on, and then had the great pleasure of hearing them coming back to me in early cuts of the footage shot by Edgar and edited by his longtime collaborator Paul Machliss.  These pieces, some of which had started off as late night demos played directly into my phone after reading the book and script, gradually evolved and transformed over the post production period, with all departments on the film working closely together to calibrate the sense of the world closing in on The Running Man.  The sense of detail in the movie rewards repeated viewings, there being scenes that are as ambitious as anything I’ve worked on, such as the YVA sequence where Richards escapes through a hostel where every room plays a different type of music, or a TV show, all running somehow together to create a sense of growing chaos.  Very satisfying to work on.

I loved working on the project, and was proud of the film we made.  I hope we all get to regroup again someday to tell another story.