Cineworld sat down with Edgar Wright and Glen Powell, the director and star of the new Stephen King adaptation of The Running Man – and the pair revealed exactly how Powell managed to secure the role.
While playing a quick fire round of 30 questions (to emulate the 30 days Powell’s character Ben Richards had to go on the run), we asked Wright how he decided who would be his Ben Richards – a role previously played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the early 80s adaptation.
Edgar Wright revealed he had been watching a screening of Glen Powell’s 2023 comedy Hit Man at the London Film Festival and sent Powell a picture, with the actor absent from promoting the movie due to the ongoing actors' strikes at the time.
Initially Powell responded to the text, “Oh, I’m so bummed I’m not there.” Then, never missing an opportunity to be booked and busy, he followed up with, “Consider this my audition tape.”
Listening attentively, Glen laughed at the retelling of the story and said, “I’m so shameless,” to which Edgar responded, “Make it happen. Manifest!”
And manifest he did!
Of course, he also had to get the seal of approval from Stephen King himself.
At a New York Comic Con panel this year, Glen described the “terrible” ordeal of waiting for King to watch Hit Man and decide if Powell was right for the role of Ben Richards. Luckily, he thought he was perfect!
And the pressure wasn’t just on Glen, either. Edgar Wright also had to run the screenplay he co-wrote with Michael Bacall by Stephen King, which is reportedly more faithful to the book than the 1987 adaptation starring Arnie.
Yet to see The Running Man? Edgar Wright suggests IMAX is the only way. “It’s a crazy story. See it several stories high.”
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