One Awkward Demand Couldn’t Stop Lee Pace From Joining Edgar Wright’s The Running Man

Lee Pace has done the bombastic sci-fi thing in 'Foundation' and now he is stalking through Edgar Wright's 'The Running Man' in a mask. And yeah, the mask is the point. This is Wright going gritty and grounded with a survival-thriller that eventually detonates into spectacle, violence, and some pretty pointed commentary.

Why Lee Pace signed on (and kept the mask on)

Pace told India Today he joined the film because he wanted to work with Edgar Wright, period. The twist: Wright told him upfront he would be in a mask the entire time. Pace still said yes, and then treated the mask like a puzzle he had to solve with posture, movement, and presence.

'The reason to do a film is to work with the director, and Edgar Wright is someone I have been a huge fan of for years... when he called me and asked me to be a part of this, I jumped at the chance, even after he told me I would be in a mask the whole time.'

That challenge became the fun of it for him: how to make a character legible when you never see his face. According to Pace, the physical choices built an unsettling hunter named McCone who is cool with violence to a disarming, almost casual degree. He ties that attitude to entertainment itself, leaning into a dark sense of humor that he says was surprisingly enjoyable to play at 46.

The two realities of The Running Man

Here is where the movie gets sneaky. You follow McCone in the real world, then you watch the distorted TV show version inside the movie. Ben Richards is the hero of the story we are watching. But inside the in-universe network show? The format sells McCone and his Hunters as the stars. Pace likes that split because it shows how easily an audience can be steered when a narrative is tightly controlled. He even calls the whole runner vs. hunter choice kind of absurd by design.

Wright, grounded

Edgar Wright is not doing the flashy, hyper-cut thing here. The action is practical, the stakes feel physical, and the dystopia has enough social bite to feel uncomfortably current. That approach comes with scale: this is Wright's priciest movie to date, reportedly budgeted at $110 million, which makes it clear Paramount is betting real money on it.

How it is playing so far

Early reactions out of the premiere have been strong. Critics are circling the same trio of strengths: satire, social commentary, and action that actually lands. The cast is stacked in interesting ways too — Glen Powell, Lee Pace, Sean Hayes, and Colman Domingo all factor in — which gives the thing a different flavor than your standard chase movie.

• Domestic box office to date: $6,450,000 (per Box Office Mojo)
• Budget: $110 million (Wright's most expensive)
• Studio: Paramount Pictures
• Key players: Glen Powell, Lee Pace, Sean Hayes, Colman Domingo

Wright is not a guaranteed blockbuster guy, but he does build loyalty. Put the early buzz, the scale, and the accessible social edge together, and this could end up his biggest theatrical run yet.

'The Running Man' is now in US theaters.