When Rob Cohen purchased the rights to the Richard Bachman novel "The Running Man," he wondered why these rights were so expensive, given that Bachman was not a very well known or prolific writer, until he was told that Bachman was actually a pseudonym for Stephen King. King had used the name for his books that were outside of his usual horror genre, and also because publishers usually limited releases to one book per writer per year.
Many people who worked with Richard Dawson on the game show Family Feud (1976) say that in real life Dawson was more like his character Damon Killian in his handling of underlings.
Erland van Lidth ("Dynamo") was a classically trained Helden baritone opera singer, so in his introduction when Dynamo is singing an aria from "The Marriage of Figaro," it actually is van Lidth singing. He died in 1987 the same year the movie was released. This was his final movie, as well as that of Richard Dawson (Damon Killian).
Originally scheduled for a July 1987 release, it was moved back four months by Tri-Star to avoid competition with Arnold Schwarzenegger's other summer film, Predator (1987), which was released in June.
When Killian is sending Fireball into the game, he says, "There he goes, the leading rusher." Fireball was played by Jim Brown, the NFL's all-time leader in rushing yards until the mid-'80s.