Alexandria, VA – Just as Lionsgate submitted the cast of The Long Walk for the inaugural 2026 Best Casting Oscar consideration, along with a gamut of 14 other nominations in categories including Best Picture, Paramount Pictures dropped their own Stephen King dystopian action-adventure adaptation property for Glen Powell, The Running Man. Powell, the 2020s wannabe Tom Cruise, brings an action-hero antidote to King’s deconstruction of the psyche that’s far more prevalent in The Long Walk.
The 2025 remake of King’s The Running Man, unlike the 1987 adaptation starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, is closer to King’s original 1982 novel, published under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. Despite a strong supporting cast with standout performances by Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) and Josh Brolin (Dune 1, 2, and 3 {due out next year}) as well as Emilia Jones of 2021’s Best Picture CODA and HBO’s compelling must-see series Task, The Running Man fails to command the haunting gravitas of The Long Walk.
The Long Walk, based upon King’s first novel (also under the nom de plume Richard Bachman) has become a serious dark horse Oscar contender. Reaping high praise as being the best King adaptation unto itself, The Long Walk benefits from veteran dystopian world creators from the Hunger Games metaverse.
Director Francis Lawrence, along with Alexandria native Cameron MacConomy, Roy Lee (The Departed), and horror genre master Steven Schneider, delivered a nostalgic feel harkening back to old-school filmmaking. Filmed in sequence from start to finish, without special effects, The Long Walk is miles apart from slick and stylish The Running Man.
The entire acting ensemble of The Long Walk has been submitted for Oscar consideration. Its stellar casting is reminiscent of 1983’s The Outsiders, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring a 20-year-old Tom Cruise. Not surprisingly, Apocalypse Now, also directed by Coppola, is director Francis Lawrence’s favorite film.
The Running Man isn’t a film of this caliber. It doesn’t pretend to be. Sometimes a film is simply fun. A good first-date film. A fantastically futuristic film. A film that transports you to a different world. Glen Powell’s dimpled grin and blue/green eyes deliver on a promise to entertain. Sometimes that’s more than enough!
THE BEST of the FEST
Speaking of award-winning filmmaking, the 19th annual Alexandria Film Festival returned last month to sold-out screenings and record attendance, with complimentary tickets for federal workers and a showcase salute to our military. Sixty-two films submitted by independent filmmakers from around the world were screened. Half were from the DMV.
This year the AFF featured films that premiered at top fests such as Sundance, SXSW, and Tribeca. Coexistence, My Ass, directed by Lebanese filmmaker Amber Fares and shot over five years of ongoing conflict following Israeli activist-comedian Noam Shuster Elias, is an Oscar contender.
Twelve films were given awards and half of those were to local filmmakers. Seventy percent of the films screened premiered at the AFF, including 15 world and US premieres as well as 14 DMV premieres, elevating the festival’s founding mission as a platform for emerging, homegrown filmmaking.
Spotlighting women’s voices has been an imperative focus at the AFF. This year six films presented a diverse feminine perspective via stories about and by women in both short and feature-length screenings. Notably the Spanish language film Comparsa, in its Virginia premiere, was an inspiring telling of youthful female resistance and resilience standing opposed to adversity and repression in the guise of giant puppets, fire, and demonstrably powerful, artful protest performance.
The all-volunteer work begins now for the 20th annual Alexandria Film Festival celebration in concert with the United States semiquincentennial anniversary soirée to end all soirées. As the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio motto goes, “Ars gratia artis” (art for art’s sake). The AFF embodies fabulae gratis artis—stories for art’s sake. At Z MovieZ can’t wait for the AFF 2026 storytime!
