Copyright Parade
Glen Powell might be a rising star in the entertainment industry, but even he has to wait for the final verdict when it comes a Stephen King adaptation. Taking to the stage at New York City’s recent Comic Con event, the 36-year-old Twisters star confirmed that he had to anxiously await Stephen King’s say-so when it came to his casting in the upcoming sci-fi thriller, The Running Man (per People magazine). As Powell remembered it, “[Director Edgar Wright] offered me this movie, and I was like, ‘Yes.’ I’m like, ‘Let’s go…’ And then, like, later that night he says, ‘By the way, like, you have to be approved by Stephen King. He’s gonna watch Hit Man tonight.'” As fans of his work likely know, Hit Man served as one of Powell’s key breakthrough performances, leading him to new career heights in the film industry. In spite of its glowing positive reception, however, Powell admitted he was incredibly nervous waiting for King’s response to the 2023 crime comedy. “I had to wait overnight for Stephen King to watch Hit Man and hope that I still had the role in the morning. It’s terrible,” the actor hilariously observed. Fortunately, Powell confirmed that King “loved” the film, paving the way for his casting in the second Running Man adaptation. Based on the 78-year-old King’s 1982 novel of the same name, The Running Man follows an ordinary man struggling to compete in a violent reality TV series that sees him outrunning various professional killers. Originally made into a 1987 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, the new version of The Running Man promises to be a more faithful recreation of King’s novel. Humorously, director Edgar Wright also revealed he had to get King’s approval on the movie’s script, something that made him as tense and nervous as The Running Man‘s star.
