Richard Linklater changes direction with his next film Hitman, and the first cast members for the movie have been confirmed.
Richard Linklater, it seems, is a man who still doesn’t like to be pigeonholed. From creating what is arguably a perfect film trilogy in the Before series, helming the beloved comedy School of Rock and breaking new cinematic ground by filming Boyhood over twelve years, Linklater continually pushes himself as a filmmaker.
That brings us to Hitman, a return to what looks like higher budget territory for the filmmaker after a succession of indie dramas, most recently the animated slice of life film Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hitman will follow the story of “Gary Johnson, a successful undercover cop in Texas who would pose as a professional killer to get people on tape trying to hire him for his services. Over 60 Houston-area residents hired Johnson to shoot, stab, chop, poison or suffocate those they wanted dead, including a spouse or boss”.
Glen Powell, most recently seen in Top Gun: Maverick, will play Johnson, alongside Austin Amelio and Adria Arjona. Amelio previously starred in Linklater’s 2016 coming of age film Everybody Wants Some!
Linklater directs from a script he co-wrote with Powell based on a 2001 article by Skip Hollandsworth, whose work also inspired Linklater’s underrated 2011 black comedy Bernie.
Richard Linklater’s current project, an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s musical Merrily We Roll Along, is his most ambitious yet. It began production in 2019 and will continue to film footage each year for twenty years.
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