How to Make a Killing arrives as a wickedly stylish black‑comedy thriller, written and directed by John Patton Ford, the filmmaker behind Emily the Criminal. Adapted from Roy Horniman’s 1907 novel Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal, and loosely inspired by the classic 1949 Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets, the film reimagines a century‑old satire for a contemporary audience hungry for stories about power, privilege, and the seductive logic of self‑made success.
With Glen Powell leading a formidable ensemble cast—including Margaret Qualley, Jessica Henwick, Bill Camp, Zach Woods, Topher Grace, and Ed Harris—the film blends dark humour with psychological tension, crafting a narrative that is as entertaining as it is unsettling.
At the centre of the story is Becket Redfellow, a blue‑collar outsider disowned at birth by his obscenely wealthy family. When he discovers that he is, in fact, the rightful heir to the Redfellow fortune, he embarks on a ruthless quest to reclaim what he believes is his due—no matter how many relatives stand in his way. Ford’s screenplay transforms this premise into a sharp, satirical character study, exploring how entitlement, resentment, and ambition can twist into something monstrous when given just enough oxygen. Powell’s performance grounds the film in a charismatic menace: Becket is charming, wounded, and terrifyingly determined, a man who believes that the world owes him a debt he intends to collect.
Back in 2023, Glen Powell says he found himself at a crossroads.
The now 37-year-old star was enjoying a trajectory that had, appropriately enough, taken a stratospheric upwards turn thanks to his standout performance in Top Gun: Maverick. He also had another two movies in the can – Hit Man, that he co-wrote and produced alongside director Richard Linklater, and Anyone But You, his high concept, much-paparazzied rom-com with Sydney Sweeney – that he was confident would cement his status.
But Powell craved something deeper. Something provocative and punchy that would push people’s
buttons while thrilling them with the kind of amoral maze of a movie he’d grown up loving watching
himself. A genre-stretching picture that would satisfy a personal creative itch and have audiences
debating its rights and wrongs long after the credits rolled.
He found precisely what he’d been looking for in How To Make A Killing, the wickedly entertaining
thriller from acclaimed writer-director John Patton Ford, that is about to unleash its gripping revenge
plot and razor-sharp wit on mainstream crowds and avid movie-goers alike, across the world.
Ford had taken that script to STUDIOCANAL, who have produced the film it has now become alongside Blueprint Pictures.
The French-born company had felt it fit perfectly with their ethos to make what its EVP of global production, Ron Halpern, calls “visionary movies driven by directors who have a voice for audiences of today, who are looking for distinctive filmmaking. That’s why we wanted to make this film, with John.”
Significantly, STUDIOCANAL wasn’t only the right studio for the project because of the kind of movies it makes right now but for the many that exist in its vast library of classics too. One very important one, in particular.
“How To Make A Killing is a loose, loose reimagining of the classic Ealing Studios dry comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets, from the ‘40s,” Ford reveals. “This is a more bombastic, American version of it.”
That original movie, directed in 1949 by Robert Hamer, starred the legendary Alec Guinness, who played an unprecedented eight characters in it. “I love the original. There is such a unique tone and wit to it. And over the years, STUDIOCANAL have had various big cheese movie stars come in and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to remake Kind Hearts and Coronets? And how about I play all the parts?’” says How To Make A Killing’s producer, Pete Czernin.
Until now, though, none of the suggested approaches had seemed quite the right fit. “It’s always hard to explain what makes it worth pursuing a new version of something,” Halpern says. “But what John did was make this feel incredibly contemporary. It just worked, the moment you read it. He made the original feel ripe for reappraisal. He took the bones of it, flipped it to America and shook it up.”
Powell had been considering Ford’s new script with his sights set firmly on the lead role
Becket Redfellow, a young man robbed of his birthright to a vast family fortune and determined to get what he feels he’s owed by murdering his way through the family members who stand in his way.
“I loved the script because its concept was just so compelling and had such a great ensemble of characters,” Powell says. “When I read it, I realised that this was the kind of role I’d been looking to
take on – the kind of part I’d never played.”
Powell had been a fan of Ford’s debut movie, the multiple award-winning, critically adored and Aubrey Plaza-starring Emily the Criminal, and when he met with the director, his fandom only amplified.
“I was a huge fan of Emily the Criminal, but then sitting down with John, I became a fan of him as a person too. And then I became a fan of what he was planning on doing with this movie, and how it was going to feel. The movie that John was talking about, on a tonal level and on a taste level, was the kind of movie I hadn’t ever seen in the marketplace,” Powell says.
“We’ve all seen American Psycho. We’ve seen derivatives of it. We’ve seen Taxi Driver. We’ve seen derivatives of that too. But the way John was conceptualising this movie, his vision behind it, I was
like, ‘I’ve never seen that movie – it’s like Ocean’s 11 with murder. It’s rock ‘n’ roll. It’s got swagger.’
John reminded me of a young [Steven] Soderbergh.”
Soderbergh wasn’t the only auteur that Ford was being compared to behind the scenes. Ask How To Make A Killing’s producer, Pete Czernin, what makes him such a special talent, and he’ll namecheck some other filmmaking greats that he believes Ford sits comfortably alongside.
“I’ve been lucky enough to work with Martin McDonagh [on the double-Oscar-winning Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri], who is just extraordinary. But the Americans seem to bang out this calibre of writer-directors: Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, John Patton Ford… That writer-director space is very interesting, and John is right in that zone.”
What most interested Powell about the project, and the character of Becket Redfellow himself, was a question of perspective. Specifically, that of the audience. Because here was that rare thing: a movie that, like the American Psycho and Taxi Driver examples he had for so long been seeking, asked its viewers to be complicit in the action themselves. To root for a man doing terrible things. To want him to literally get away with murder.
“That’s exactly what I’d loved about those movies, us following somebody we shouldn’t. That POV where the audience ends up rooting for the antagonist, essentially. Or at least someone who has antagonistic morals,” Powell smiles, delighted to now be playing in the ethical murk.
“The fun of jumping into this world was, ‘How far can I take the audience down this path and still make them root for me?’ That’s what I was always craving, that shift of perspective. This movie isn’t attempting to exist in the same lane as those other exceptional movies. But like them, we’re guiding the audience on a journey they may not at first think they want to go on, but will discover is a blast to go on.”
Powell isn’t the only one for whom making How To Make A Killing represents a personal milestone.
“On a thematic level, this movie is about growing up in the United States, where you’re taught to acquire more than you showed up with. That’s certainly built into my DNA, to get more and more and go further and never quite be satisfied with where you are,” says Ford.
“This is a movie about someone with that disease, who simply can’t accept where he currently is. For reasons beyond his control, he feels he deserves this fortune that he just can’t get. Really this story is all about how far we will go in life to get something we are convinced will make us content, when actually the definition of contentment is being happy with what you have. It’s a movie about that dilemma that we all share.”
The director smiles, overjoyed to be working with his leading man to bring to delicious life a character for the ages played by an actor at the peak of his powers, who is finally getting to unleash his wild side.
“What makes this movie extreme is that it centres around a character who feels emboldened to do things that we just would not do. And Glen is so perfect for that because on one hand he’s so identifiable as a performer and, on the other, he is so charming that you’d almost forgive him for anything,” Ford says.
“Because Becket is like us, up to a point. He’s like us in the sense that he has similar desires, fears and insecurities. But then, for whatever reason, he doesn’t quite have the same ethical hang-ups that we do and is able to do things that we would never, ever consider doing. It’s a story that is designed to give the audience an illicit thrill because we get to follow someone who’s ever so slightly more over the line than we are. It’s a wild ride for sure.”
“One of the most fascinating aspects about making this movie has been exploring the different versions of wealth, and what it does to different people,” Ford says. “It’s not the same for everyone. Each of these characters uses that money and that leverage in their own unique ways.”
JOHN PATTON FORD – Director – writer
John grew up in rural South Carolina. When he was thirteen, a movie filmed in his hometown, and he was cast in a small role (because he “looked local”) and ended up spending a month on set, following around the director and cinematographer. He quickly became interested in filmmaking. After graduating from The American Film Institute, his thesis film, PATROL, premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. He found work as a screenwriter soon after, penning scripts for Sony, Universal, and Disney. His directing debut was EMILY THE CRIMINAL, starring Aubrey Plaza. The movie premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards, winning Best First Screenplay. He lives in Los Angeles.
