Filmmaking: Mirmont Pictures Produces High-Octane Angel Studios Campaign for Runner, Starring Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson
- Mirmont
- 16 hours ago
- 7 min read
Directed by Kaitlin Snow and photographed by acclaimed cinematographer Johnny Derango, the Angel Studios campaign brings feature-filmmaking action to the streets of Salt Lake City ahead of Runner’s September 11 theatrical release.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — September 2026 — Mirmont Pictures has completed production on a new cinematic advertising campaign for Angel Studios and its upcoming action thriller Runner, starring Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson, ahead of the film’s nationwide theatrical release on September 11, 2026.
Produced for Angel Studios by Mirmont Pictures, the campaign transforms a simple date night into a full-scale action sequence, complete with stunt driving, high-speed pursuit photography, multiple cameras, controlled downtown Salt Lake City streets and a race to make it to the movies on time.
The campaign supports Angel Studios’ theatrical release of Runner, an action-comedy thriller directed by Scott Waugh. The film follows a former soldier, played by Alan Ritchson, who becomes caught in a race against time when a critical medical delivery puts him and his unlikely partner, played by Owen Wilson, in the crosshairs of a ruthless cartel. Their mission: survive long enough to deliver life-saving cargo to a critically ill little girl.
Bringing the Action of Runner Into the Real World
Rather than approach the project as a conventional promotional spot, the creative team built the campaign around the energy and urgency of Runner itself.
Actors Trey Warner and Twyla Wilson star as Phil and Letty, a married couple whose attempt to make it to a showing of Runner escalates into an increasingly outrageous race across town.
The commercial begins with Letty sliding a minivan into the driveway and yelling that Runner starts in three minutes.
From there, the couple barrels toward the theater as Phil discovers that his Angel membership includes tickets to see the film.
The journey quickly begins mirroring the action playing on his phone: hard turns, aggressive driving and a particularly unfortunate encounter with a hot dog stand lead them all the way to the cinema.
The campaign culminates with the couple racing through the theater lobby and finally reaching their seats — where a surprise Owen Wilson moment brings the joke full circle.
The script was designed around Angel’s Labor Day promotion, which advertises an Angel Guild Premium membership for $16 per month during the promotional period and two tickets to see Runner, alongside access to Angel’s streaming library.
The campaign was designed in multiple versions for YouTube, Meta, theatrical conversion and subsequent streaming promotion, allowing the same cinematic concept to continue beyond the film’s opening weekend.
Cinematographer Johnny Derango Brings Feature-Film Experience to the Campaign
To photograph the campaign, Mirmont Pictures collaborated with acclaimed cinematographer Johnny Derango, whose feature-film work includes Mel Gibson’s
Flight Risk, starring Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Dockery and Topher Grace, as well as Red Right Hand, starring Orlando Bloom and Andie MacDowell, Unsung Hero, Sarah’s Oil and Small Town Crime.
Derango's work on Flight Risk placed him alongside director Mel Gibson to create the film's tightly controlled, high-altitude action photography. Panavision has featured Derango discussing the cinematography and color pipeline of the film, while Sony Cine has profiled his use of the VENICE platform and virtual-production techniques on the production.
For the Runner campaign, Derango brought that feature-film action sensibility to a multi-camera production that included aerial, pursuit photography, stunt vehicles and controlled city streets in downtown Salt Lake City.
Working with director Kaitlin Snow, Mirmont and the camera, grip, electric and stunt departments, the production sought to give a commercial campaign the scale and visual language of the movie it was promoting.
An Experienced Film Crew Behind the Chase
The campaign brought together an experienced Utah production crew alongside longtime Mirmont Pictures collaborators.
Veteran David Childers served as Key Grip. Childers has spent more than four
decades working in the motion-picture industry and is the author of the filmmaking memoir Let’s Roll Some Film. His career includes work on productions including Mrs. Doubtfire, Milk, No Country for Old Men, Howard the Duck and War of the Worlds, among many others.
Childers' presence was particularly fitting for a production built heavily around moving-camera and vehicle work: his own writing chronicles decades of practical filmmaking, rigging, camera movement and the often-unseen craft required to create large-scale images safely and effectively.
The campaign's production design was led by Brianna Davis, a multidisciplinary visual artist, children's author and illustrator behind the ten-book Pop Art Books series. Davis is also known for her fine-art practice, including colorful resin-based works that have been exhibited in museum settings.
Her crossover between publishing, illustration, fine art and production design brought a distinctive visual sensibility to the campaign's props, environments and Angel-branded details.
Stunt Coordinator Frank L. Barre oversaw the production's stunt work, supported by stunt drivers Gabe Jessop, Ambyr Bambyr and Chris Reid, as the production executed vehicle action through controlled Salt Lake City streets with support from Salt Lake City Police Department and Override Films handling arm-car work.
A Continuing Collaboration With Angel Studios
The Runner campaign continues an ongoing creative relationship between Angel Studios and Mirmont Pictures, with Trey Warner and Twyla Wilson becoming familiar faces within several of the companies' promotional collaborations.
Warner and Wilson have previously appeared together in Mirmont-produced campaigns supporting Angel releases including Young Washington and The Brink of War.
Their return for Runner allowed the new spot to build on that chemistry while pushing the scale considerably further into action-comedy territory.
For Mirmont Pictures, the campaign also represents the company's continued move toward increasingly ambitious commercial filmmaking — combining the speed and focus of advertising production with crews, equipment and visual approaches more commonly associated with feature filmmaking.
That approach was particularly suited to Angel, whose unconventional model has built a substantial audience around the Angel Guild, a community that participates in supporting and championing the company's film and television releases.
Angel describes its platform as being powered by more than two million Guild members.
With Runner, Angel is bringing that audience into theaters for a PG-13 action film built around sacrifice, heroism, humor and an urgent race to save a child's life.
Runner, starring Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson, opens in theaters nationwide September 11, 2026.
About Mirmont Pictures
Founded in 2005 by filmmaker and producer Sohrab Mirmont, Mirmont Pictures is an independent production company specializing in cinematic commercial, narrative and documentary storytelling.
Across more than two decades, Mirmont Pictures has created and produced work connected with organizations and brands ranging from the BBC and the U.S. Army to Disney and Apple, while collaborating on productions involving internationally recognized talent including Liam Neeson, Jim Caviezel, and Robert Redford.
The company's documentary work has reached hundreds of millions of viewers online, while its narrative work has extended to some of the world's most important film institutions and festivals.
Mirmont also served as a producer on Riddle of Fire, which premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, continuing the company's expansion into internationally recognized independent cinema.
From intimate documentary storytelling to large-scale commercial campaigns and internationally exhibited narrative cinema, Mirmont Pictures continues to build toward a model in which advertising and branded entertainment are approached with the same craftsmanship, visual ambition and storytelling discipline as motion pictures.
Runner: Tickets — Cast & Crew
Director — Kaitlin Snow
Producer — Sohrab Mirmont
Creative Director — Jake Christensen
Marketing & Strategy — Maciek Wroblewski
Director of Photography — Johnny Derango
Production Designer — Brianna Davis
First Assistant Director — Sohrab Mirmont
Second Assistant Director — Kili Maile
Second Second Assistant Director — Keith Grover
Editor — Tanner Grenko
Script Supervisor — Isabel Jeppsen
On-Set Sound Mixer— Gerald Hartley
Steadicam Operator — Jon Williams Camera & Drone Operator — Brian Durkee Camera & Drone Operator — Tanner Sisson
First Assistant Camera (A Cam) — Brenna Empey First Assistant Camera (B Cam) — Tia Rosenlof
Second Assistant Camera — Blake Henrie
Camera Utility — Angel Dietz
Arm Car : Override Films / Jordan Overman Arm Car Driver: Preston (PJ) Hale Crane Operator / Tech: Calen Albert
Gaffer — Trenton Michael Davis Key Grip — David Childers
Best Boy Electric — Ariel Soto
Swing — Leileuha Rata
Swing — Wyatt Naplin
Stunt Coordinator — Frank L. Barre
Stunt Driver — Gabe Jessop
Stunt Driver — Ambyr Bambyr
Stunt Driver — Chris Reid
Hair & Makeup Artist — Danielle Donahue
Wardrobe — Tayler Swensen
Set Medic — Teren Turner
Production Assistant — Ra Ramirez
Production Assistant — Natalie Taylor
Locations — Mimi Davis-Taylor
Set Medic — Teren Turner
Catering & Craft Services — Fat Boy Catering
DIT & Assistant Editor — Daxon Geldmacher
Colorist — John Newton
VFX & Digital Artist — Mace Sorensen VFX Artist — Tyler Stevens
Cast
Phil / Husband — Trey Warner
Letty / Wife — Twyla Wilson
Owen Wilson Voice — Owen Wilson Owen Wilson Double — Anthony Applegate Concession Employee — Sarah Hanna Ticket Scanner — Al "Rocky"
Background Actors
George Bush
Andrew Myers
Sophia Van Nederveen
Maciek Wroblewski
Camila Victoriano Lydia Maldonado
Jake Christensen Maciek Wroblewski Teren Turner Natalie Taylor Mace Sorensen ————————
Behind-the-scenes photography & video used in this article provided by: Natalie Taylor, Brianna Davis, Sohrab Mirmont.
———————— If you'd like to work with us, reach out: info [at] mirmont [dot] net or click here
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