Glen Powell reveals how his new film updates an iconic British comedy "in all the best ways"

After starring in Edgar Wright's high-octane reimagining of '80s classic The Running Man last year, Glen Powell is back on the big screen this week in another project that has its roots in a beloved earlier film.

John Patton Ford's How to Make a Killing is inspired by Robert Hamer's classic 1949 Ealing Comedy Kind Hearts of Coronets, which famously starred Alec Guinness as eight different relatives killed by Dennis Price's vengeful aristocrat as he tried to murder his way up a line of succession.

The new film reimagines the story for the modern day, with Powell taking on Price's role – here named Beckett Redfellow – alongside other key cast members including Margaret Qualley, Jessica Henwick and Topher Grace.

And speaking to Radio Times ahead of the release, Powell explained what he loved about the way Ford had brought such a timeless tale into the present.

"If you've seen [Ford's previous film] Emily the Criminal, John really has such a amazing internal engine for tone," Powell explained in an exclusive interview.

"He's really, really good about navigating that kind of tonal tightrope. And this one's really tough. It's not an easy movie to pull off. And obviously, you know, he wrote it and directed it, so it's like, he gets to be the truth and the light for how this movie kind of is seen."

Powell added that although he reckoned Kind Hearts and Coronets was "a great inspiration piece", he added that it was "of an era" – and thinks this new version brings it up to the modern day in an interesting manner.

"I think John did a really good job of adapting and making it feel fresh and unique and fun and demented in all the best ways," he said.

As with the earlier film, audiences might find themselves rooting for Powell's protagonist even as he commits blatant acts of murder, and the actor confessed that he found it interesting to dig into this paradox.

"If you read a script and feel like you know how to play it. I think it's probably a bad idea," he explained. "Usually you read a script, and you're like, 'Oh, wow, there's a lot of different paths. How would I go about doing this?' And then just kind of dreaming about like, how does the audience conceptualise this journey?

"And it's fun to think about those things," he added. "You never really know until you get to the edit, and you're like, 'All right, did we pull it off?' And I think this movie... I'm really proud of this movie, and I think it's really a great ride. But that's the fun challenge."

Ford had first penned the script for the film more than a decade ago – with it appearing on the Black List of the best unproduced screenplays back in 2014. And interestingly, Powell had been aware of the project even before then.

"This movie was originally called Rothchild," he said. "I read this script when I first moved out to LA or pretty early in that journey. It was probably like 2009 or 2010 or something like that. And I was originally auditioning for another role that I didn't get, and then they didn't end up making the movie.

"So it was really kind of crazy to have it come full circle and back into my life. And then I was like, 'Oh, I always loved the story.' It was always, like demented and fun and buoyant and thrilling, and had all these juicy characters and a really fun world to dive into. And the script honestly didn't change that much. It was always a really, really great script!"

How to Make a Killing is released in UK cinemas on Wednesday 11 March 2026.

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