Glen Powell's Hollywood Ambitions Starring Ryan Murphy, JJ Abrams, More

To celebrate his first Hollywood role in Robert Rodriguez's film Spy on kids 3D: Game over, Glen Powell, then a middle school senior, asked his mother to take him to Home Depot to buy chroma key paint.

The aspiring actor, who had chosen Steven Spielberg and his use of special effects as the subject of one of his first school projects, was about to transform his family's Texas barn into his own soundstage. He had long ago figured out how to make his own accessories. Now young Powell would build wind and water machines to use on his new green screen background. His home films would soon feature storms of all kinds, just as so many of his favorite Spielberg films had done.

Flash forward two decades, and Powell isn't just playing a storm chaser in Universal's summer tentpole Twists, which counts Spielberg as a producer, but also created a production company that it aptly calls Barnstorm Productions. His goal for this still-nascent company is to produce high-end projects with commercial and global appeal. And while Powell doesn't yet have a framework to run him on a daily basis, he's actively seeking one now that he's inundated with opportunities and everything he's ever touched – including a Captain Planet script he wrote years ago – it seems the process is being sped up.

“That’s the funniest part of this moment,” he says in the THR cover story. “I worked really hard for a long time, putting things together and just trying to get them in shape enough that people wouldn't care. Then eventually you get to a place where people are like, “Yeah, let’s do it!” » and suddenly you're playing musical chairs with yourself. You're like 'Wait, do I sit in all these chairs right away?”

Barnstorm's first entry is the one that was just released Blue angels documentary for IMAX and Amazon Prime Video, which he produced with JJ Abrams. The film, which touts unprecedented access to the U.S. Navy's Flight Demonstration Squadron, exists because of Powell's support and passion. After all, he grew up with a lithograph of the Blue Angels in his childhood bedroom, and later trained with the unit during the making of Top Gun: Maverick. “Glen's passion for what these amazing Navy pilots do is part of what drew me to get involved with the documentary,” Abrams said via email, adding, “He is not just a actor, but also a legitimate screenwriter and producer In other words, he speaks several languages ​​when it comes to cinema, which is an invaluable quality.

Richard Linklater echoes this point, having just co-written and co-produced Hitman, which hits theaters later this week, starring Powell and company. If Anyone but you proved to studio bosses that Powell could open a movie, it seems his chameleon turn Hitman, which toured the festivals last fall, demonstrated its versatility. “With some people, you might say, 'Oh, he'd be great for this specific type of thing,'” says Peter Cramer, chairman of Universal Pictures. “But Glen made himself great at everything. He can do comedy, action, romance, drama.

Of course, as many contributors note, Powell's appeal extends beyond what you see on screen. He also invests actively and enthusiastically in the development and promotion of his projects. “So often actors look at marketing or publicity as, 'Oh my God, now I have to market the film?' I just wanted to get there,” Powell says. “And then you look at Margot Robbie or Ryan Reynolds, these actors who embrace marketing in unexpected ways, and what ends up happening is the audience has fun while they're advertising a movie and 'then he is desperate to see him.'

Although no one has more airtime to argue with Powell than his Top Gun co-star turned mentor, Tom Cruise, he praises Robbie. In fact, he considers his production company, LuckyChap, to be the gold standard, and says he aspires to build something in its mold at Barnstorm. “Margot is involved in the design of a project, in production and then in marketing. So nothing is an afterthought and everything seems coherent,” he says, citing barbie as an example – noting how Robbie approached each step of the process “like entertainment”, even promoting and barbie a press tour as fun as the film itself.

Although Powell's dance card is already full, he seems to want to keep adding to it. During an hour-long conversation, he reveals that he is working on projects with Greg Berlanti and his former Scream Queens boss Ryan Murphy. (Technically, he met Murphy years ago on the set of Joy, where Powell — or “Hot Texas Glen,” as the cast and crew called him — spent time taking care of his best friend and former roommate, Chord Overstreet.) Murphy had tried to cast Powell in many TV shows. shows up as his star was rising, but more recently it was Powell who approached him for a collaboration. Powell was writing a musical for Broadway and he wanted Tony-winner Murphy to produce it with him. (Powell is unlikely to star in this one, mainly due to his aforementioned schedule, but he's a longtime lover of musicals and, he says, “I definitely have the itch of Broadway.”)

Looking ahead, there will be many projects in which Barnstorm has no place, and Powell will simply be involved as an actor. Currently, he is filming a revenge thriller on A24, Huntington, in South Africa. Powell plays the heir to a multi-billion dollar fortune who will stop at nothing to get what he deserves – or what he thinks he deserves. The role required him to lose around 15 pounds of body mass. “Because this character should be invisible,” he says, adding of the John Patton Ford-directed film which he says moves like Casino: “He has bite and swagger.”

Once this is completed, he will return his attention to Powers of ChadA Ted LassoHulu-style comedy based on the popular college football character created by Eli Manning for his ESPN+ docuseries Eli's places. Both Manning brothers are present as producers, as is ESPN, but it is LokiMichael Waldron and Powell, two die-hard college football fans, are writing the series. Powell says it's one of the most difficult roles he's ever attempted. As Hitman, it's a role within a role, in the vein of his childhood favorites, Tootsie And Mrs. Doubtfire. “It’s like the worst guy on the planet putting on the mask of the greatest Southern guy you’ve ever seen,” he says. Powell, who previously played high school football in Texas, previously worked with Patrick Mahomes' quarterback coach and consulted with Cruise, who made Thunder in the tropics, on prostheses.

There is also a Running Man reboot from director Edgar Wright, which he signed to star in the same week he was in Vegas wooing theater owners with footage of Twists. Shortly after, he landed the lead role in a Monsanto legal drama from producer Adam McKay. Then news broke that Powell would not only reinvent Heaven can wait but he was also in talks to star in Abrams' next film. And while neither he nor Abrams are willing to share details of the project, Abrams says of Powell's appeal: “I think Glen has just started to scratch the surface of what he's capable of at the moment. screen. Simply put, he's a terrific actor – but it's his humility, his humanity, his sense of humor and his willingness to show vulnerability and laugh at himself – that make me certain he will to do some pretty incredible work in the years to come.

Deciding where to go from here won't come without pressure, even as Powell actively tries to manage both his expectations and his mindset. According to him, there are two ways to run this business, and only one of them will make him happy. “One way of being is based on fear, which is not a way to function. It's like this: “I'd better get a franchise, I'd better hold onto intellectual property, I'd better claim relevance,” he says. “And the other way is to sit back and say, 'Okay, if I was still that little kid begging his dad to go to the movies and I looked at where I am now, I would be [amazed.] So, I try to remember that you just have to enjoy it – this thing has already gone further than you ever imagined.