Paul Walter HauserisThe Luckiest Man in Americain the first trailer for a movie based on one of the strangest stories in game show history. He plays a man who pressed his luck onPress Your Luck…until it all came crumbling down. The film will premiere in theaters on June 13, 2025.
In the new trailer, Hauser playsMichael Larson, an oddball ice-cream truck driver who applies to be on the popular 1970s game showPress Your Luck. The game involves following a seemingly random pattern of lights on a game board and avoiding the prize-stealing “Whammy” creatures. Larson takes the stage on the show, endures a little gentle needling from hostPeter Tomarken(Walton Goggins), and goes to work. Before long, he proves himself to be theKen JenningsofPress Your Luck, winning over and over again. Soon, he’s become the biggest prize-winner in game show history. Meanwhile, backstage, producerBill Carruthers(David Strathairn) is slowly realizing that something is terribly wrong: nobody should be able to win this big. Soon, they realize that they don’t really know who Larson is, and they may have to resort to extreme measures to get him off the show before he breaks the bank. The film also starsMaisie Williams,Haley Bennett,Shamier Anderson,David Rhysdahl,Johnny Knoxville,Brian Geraghty, andPatti Harrison.
Was Michael Larson ‘The Luckiest Man in America’?
As Hauser says in the trailer, “Luck is just an opportunity to do nothing, and hope that opportunity comes a-knocking.” Larson, who was alifelong scammerand enthusiast of get-rich-quick schemes, wasn’t lucky, exactly. A true obsessive, he compulsively watchedPress Your Luckat home and realized that theseemingly random pattern of lightson the board wasactually a predetermined sequence. He memorized it, then went on the show and won cash and prizes equivalent to $110,237 USD — over $300,000 in 2025. In the fallout of Larson’s scheme, theboard was reprogrammedwith numerous new patterns, andindividual contestants' winnings were capped; his appearance on the show, which had to be split into two episodes due to its length, was never rerun.
The Luckiest Man in Americawas directed bySamir Oliveros(Bad Lucky Goat); he also co-wrote the script withMaggie Briggs(Joyland). It was produced byAmanda Freedmanand executive produced byJuan de Dios Larraín,Pablo Larraín,Andrew Hevia, Hauser,Ron Black,Sara McFarlane,Damiano Tucci,Tiziano Tucci,Sophia Banks,Divya Shahani,Arun Thapar,Roger Lolly,Juan Pablo Solano, andSimón Beltrán. It is distributed by IFC Films.
The Luckiest Man in Americawill bereleased on August 14, 2025. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates, and watch the new trailer forThe Luckiest Man in Americabelow.
The Luckiest Man in America
