By Someone once remarked, “If you aim for the King, you better not miss.” According to the new Running Man, Glen Powell, however, he didn’t even realize he was taking his chance. While participating in New York Comic Con this weekend with director Edgar Wright, the former Top Gun: Maverick and Twisters actor disclosed that he was informed he couldn’t step off the starting line just yet until Stephen King, the writer of the original novel the film was adapting, provided the green light. Thankfully, it required one of Powell’s finest films thus far to finalize the agreement.
“The only encounter I had is when Edgar presented me with this film, and I was like, ‘yes.’ He’s like, ‘You’re my Ben Richards,’ and I’m like, ‘Let’s do it,’” elaborated Powell to the audience (via The Hollywood Reporter). “Later that night, you’re like, ‘By the way, you need to have Stephen King’s approval,’” Powell recounted, pointing to the very last-minute discussion he’d had with his potential director. “He’s like, ‘he’s going to watch Hitman tonight,’ so I had to wait overnight for Stephen King to view Hitman and hope that I still had the role by morning.”
From that moment, the competition was on to bring King’s narrative (previously published under his pseudonym Richard Bachman) to fruition. Set in a near yet exceptionally grim future, The Running Man features Powell as Ben Richards, a family man who enlists for America’s premier game show, which compels him to flee, pursued by trained assassins for entertainment. If he endures the ordeal, he’ll secure a substantial sum of money that will lift his family out of poverty, and crucially, save his ailing daughter in the meantime.
By this moment, however, tension levels had already decreased for Wright, whose thoughts were just recovering from being astonished by the notion that he was adapting the work of one of the most significant writers in history. “I was with Michael Bacall, who co-wrote the film with me, and I was like, ‘This is so anxiety-inducing to have to submit our assignment to Stephen King.’ But he appreciated the screenplay, so it was fantastic. It was real serendipity.” The final piece of validation came in a delightful message he received via email from King, who deemed the script, “‘more loyal to the book to keep the fans satisfied enough to keep me on my toes and thrilled.’ And I was thinking, ‘Alright, I’ll accept that.’”
Closely monitoring Powell at every moment is the stellar supporting ensemble, comprising Josh Brolin, Colman Domingo, Lee Pace.