Glen Powell had to get Stephen King approval for Running Man role
Edgar Wright was only able to cast Glen Powell in The Running Man reboot after getting Stephen King's approval.
Stephen King approved Glen Powell for The Running Man reboot after watching him in Hitman.
The 36-year-old actor takes on the lead role in a new adaptation of King's book - which was previously a 1987 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger - and revealed that although director Edgar Wright offered him the role, it was King who had final approval.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, he told the audience at New York Comic Con: “The only interaction I had is when Edgar offered me this movie, and I was like, ‘yes.’ He’s like, ‘You’re my Ben Richards,’ And I’m like, ‘Let’s go.’ Later that night, he’s like, ‘By the way, you have to be approved by Stephen King’. He’s like, he’s gonna watch Hitman tonight, so I had to wait overnight for Stephen King to watch Hitman and hope that I still had the role in the morning.”
Glen also joked about taking inspiration from Schwarzenegger’s portrayal of Richards.
He quipped: “In terms of what I took from Arnold, I do the entire performance in an Austrian accent.”
Explaining his own approach, he said: “Ben Richards is the ultimate underdog. He’s a normal guy who is facing off against the most powerful oppressive system. So there’s no greater stakes and no smaller odds.
“When Edgar and I first started talking about this role - I try to be a nice guy in real life, but he’s like, I need bad mood Glen. I need to turn on something a little different in you. And so Ben Richards, in the book, is very frustrated with the system. He’s been pushed down. He’s trying to provide for his family, and every option has been taken away from him in order to do that. So this is a man who’s just trying to provide for his family in a place that doesn’t allow him to do that, and there’s a growing frustration and anger there. I got to unleash that part of my personality.”
The Running Man is set in a dystopian future where the poor are hunted for sport on live TV, and sees desperate contestant Ben Richards enter the game show to earn money for his sick daughter.
However, as the odds stack against him, Ben discovers survival means turning the game against its creators.
