Tom Cruise Gave Glen Powell Advice About The Running Man

The Running Man will soon return to the big screen with Glen Powell playing the lead character, Ben Richards. Powell recently shared Tom Cruise’s advice for the movie.

The original The Running Man film was based on Stephen King‘s 1982 novel of the same name and was released in 1987. The movie starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as Ben Richards, who is forced to join a violent game show called The Running Man to win a huge sum of money. In the game show, contestants are hunted by professional killers on live TV. The remake is directed by Edgar Wright (Baby Driver, Shaun of the Dead, Last Night in Soho), who said that it would be more faithful to the source material than the first film. Powell recently shared how he prepared for the role.

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Powell said that when he got the role in The Running Man remake, the first person he called was Tom Cruise. The pair previously worked together on the action-adventure hit Top Gun: Maverick. Powell is impressed by Cruise’s honesty about his “theatrical experience” and wanted a piece of advice from the action star on “how to run.” “So when I was cast, Tom was my first call … to learn how to run. He said, ‘Film yourself running as soon as possible. You don’t look as cool as you think.’ And we did,” Powell shared at CinemaCon. The Anyone But You actor added that he also talked to “running coaches” who told him that there was only one actor who knew how to run on screen, and that was Cruise.

Glen Powell Picked The Right Guy To Call For Advice

Tom Cruise Knows How To Be An Action Star

In the thriller set in a dystopian America, Powell will surely be seen running a lot. He jokingly added that he didn’t have Cruise’s insurance plan, isn’t trying to be the Jack Reacher star, and that he learned a lot from Cruise about “how to properly do an action movie.” Aside from giving Cruise a shout-out, Powell also shared that they received the original Running Man star’s blessings for the remake. Powell said Schwarzenegger’s son, Patrick, is a good friend of his, so he asked the White Lotus star if he could talk to his dad. Powell had already met Schwarzenegger because they starred in The Expendables and The Expendables 3 together. “Arnold gave us his full blessing,” Powell said, per People.

Fans are already excited about The Running Man remake because they deem it the perfect project for Wright and Powell. They are looking forward to the tense action and emotional weight from the book, noticeably missing in the first film. Fans are not expecting a scene-by-scene remake but a meaningful adaptation of the original work. They are hoping that it will honor the spirit of the original story and not just deliver another sci-fi thriller.

Its themes, including manipulation, government control, and violence as entertainment, are just as impactful today as in the ’80s. With the advent of social media and dystopian fiction, The Running Man‘s story could resonate with modern audiences. It can also be compared to other hit franchises like The Hunger Games and Squid Game, which have won hearts around the world. Wright’s direction is expected to blend visual flair and dark satire to deliver another top-notch movie featuring a story where violence is consumed for entertainment, an eerily relevant issue in the social media age.

The Running Man is set for a theatrical release on November 7, 2025.

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Source: Deadline