Richard Linklater Wants to Resume Filming ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ ‘Pretty Soon’ if Strikes Are Resolved: ‘I’m Hopeful’

How’s this for a big pick-up in an otherwise quiet sale season on the Fall film festival circuit? Variety reports that Netflix bought the rights to Richard Linklater‘s latest film “Hit Man” after it screened at the Venice Film Festival and TIFF to rave reviews. It’s Netflix’s second significant purchase out of TIFF, the other being Anna Kendrick‘s directorial debut “Woman Of The Hours.” READ MORE: ‘Hit Man’ New Look: Richard Linklater Says His New Genre-Bending Movie Is “All About Identity” Based on a true story (but taking liberties with the source material) “Hit Man” stars Glen Powell as Gary Johnson, a part-time teacher who moonlights as a fake hitman for the local Texas police department.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix closed a $20 million deal on Hit Man, making the biggest deal at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and of the year for that matter. After the Richard Linklater-directed noir comic thriller debuted to raves at Venice, the film was expected to fetch the biggest deal of the fall festivals so far. Hit Man did not disappoint. Hit Man stars Top Gun Maverick’s Glen Powell and Adria Arjona (Andor) playing the most unlikely romantic partners, in performances that will boost each of their careers. Especially Powell, who co-wrote with Linklater what will be a major star turn for him. Netflix got US, UK, Australia/New Zealand, India, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, and Iceland. There is also a theatrical component to the deal, I’ve heard.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Netflix shelled out $20 million for global rights to “Hit Man,” a (sort of) true crime comedy from director Richard Linklater and star Glen Powell. The movie, which played to enthusiastic audiences at Telluride and Toronto film festivals, follows Powell as Gary Johnson, a mysterious gun man for hire.

Jaden Thompson Director Richard Linklater expressed his admiration for Greta Gerwig’s record-breaking “Barbie” in a recent interview with NME. He specifically praised the musical numbers in the fantasy comedy, which include “I’m Just Ken,” performed by Ryan Gosling. “I liked the musical numbers,” Linklater said.

School Of Rock, saying it “didn’t feel like a hit” when he first approached the project.Starring Jack Black as a struggling guitarist who poses as a substitute teacher, the comedy film grossed over $130million worldwide on a $35million budget when it released in 2003. It’s since spawned a stage adaptation and a TV spin-off on Nickelodeon.Speaking to NME about the film, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, director Linklater said: “I loved working on that movie and I loved Jack, and the whole process.

The 2023 Beyond Fest lineup is set. America’s biggest genre-focused festival is returning this month with a 55-film slate that includes a Roger Corman career celebration, special screening of The Abyss with James Cameron, the world premiere of Legendary’s It’s a Wonderful Knife and much more.

Emma Watson has a little twirl in her white dress while arriving at the 2023 Soho House Awards.

UPDATED with latest: The Toronto Film Festival began September 7 in Ontario with opening-night movie The Boy and the Heron, from Oscar-winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. It kicks off a lineup for the fest’s 48th edition that includes world premieres of GameStop pic Dumb Money, Netflix’s Pain Hustlers, Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins, Kristin Scott Thomas’ Scarlett Johansson pic North Star, Chris Pine’s Poolman, Michael Keaton-directed Knox Goes Away, Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour, Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils, Michael Winterbottom’s Shoshana, Grant Singer’s Reptile, Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt, Lee Tamahori’s The Convert and Alex Gibney’s doc In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon.

Carole Horst Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man” stars Glen Powell as Gary Johnson, a milquetoast philosophy professor who moonlights as an undercover cop set on flushing out people who hire contract killers. One day, Johnson gets the call to pose as a killer for hire, and proves he has a real talent for impersonation — and arrests. He dons different contract killer personas for different stings.

Richard Linklater brought his Hit Man to the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday, world premiering the comedy thriller out of competition to a six-minute ovation inside the Sala Grande.

Ellise Shafer Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man” received a spirited five-minute standing ovation on Tuesday night, as the director handed out high fives. The action comedy, which stars Glen Powell, received cheers from the beginning, with the crowd clapping throughout the film during various scenes. During the standing ovation, Linklater looked overwhelmed by the applause, mouthing “thank you so much” and holding his hand to his heart.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Is it something in the air? At this year’s Venice Film Festival, the unofficial theme appears to be hit men. David Fincher’s “The Killer” is all about an icy methodical professional executioner. Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance” turns on an act of murder-for-hire.

That Glen Powell is a gem of an actor is nothing new, but twenty years into his career, and after stealing the show in a bunch of films and series, we can all finally stop praying for him to get a leading role worthy of his talents. In “Hit Man,” Powell reunites with his “Everybody Wants Some!!” director Richard Linklater for a part that allows him to be by turns nerdy, sexy, and funny, but at all times almost unbearably charming.

It was 22 years ago that Skip Hollandsworth wrote a Texas Monthly article about Gary Johnson, a school teacher who moonlights as a hit man who doesn’t kill people. Now if that doesn’t sound like the formula for a hit movie, you may understand why it has taken so long for Gary’s story to make it to the silver screen, so long in fact that its subject passed away before he could hit the red carpet of the Venice Film Festival where the film is having its World Premiere tonight. Nevertheless Glen Powell never forgot the story and has teamed with Richard Linklater to finally tell it, but it is only “loosely” based on the article. Certain details in the screenplay co-written by Linklater and Powell are made up, and those are the details that actually help make this a hilarious winner, as well as perhaps Linklater’s most commercial movie since School Of Rock. Its quirky true crime element also has a bit in common with Linklater’s Bernie which starred Jack Black. The director seems drawn to this kind of offbeat tale, with some level of truth to it.

On its surface, a comedy about a college professor who becomes a phony hitman for the police department to catch criminals hoping to whack a stubborn spouse or bothersome business associate might seem an odd fit for a European festival noted for heavy dramas and extended runtimes. It helps, of course, that Hit Man, which premieres at Venice Film Festival this evening, is directed by Richard Linklater, a noted master of independent filmmaking for more than 30 years, and that initial reactions to it have been universally effusive.

It’s officially September. Summer is winding down, school is starting, and the Fall film festival circuit has kicked off.

Richard Linklater’s Hit Man debuts out of competition in Venice this evening, and while the story follows a professional killer, the filmmaker told the press corps today, “I’m pretty sure movies invented hitmen, they aren’t real.”

UPDATED with latest: The Telliride Film Festival began August 31 with a lineup for the Rockies event’s 50th edition that includes world premieres of Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers (Focus Features), Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (Amazon) and Free Solo filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s narrative feature Nyad (Netflix).

In Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man,” truth proves stranger than fiction. Based on Skip Hollandsworth’s Texas Monthly piece of the same name from 2001, Linklater’s newest film follows Glen Powell as Gary Johnson, a man so good at pretending to be someone else he could convince clients he was a cold-blooded contract killer.

Jeymes Samuel’s sophomore feature The Book of Clarence, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, and The Boy and the Heron by Hayao Miyazaki are among the titles that have been announced within the full lineup of the British Film Institute’s (BFI) 67th London Film Festival. Scroll down for the full list.