HIT MAN
Section: Special Presentations
Director: Richard Linklater
Writers: Richard Linklater and Glen Powell
Logline: Prolific indie auteur Richard Linklater reunites with Everybody Wants Some!!‘s Glen Powell for a sorta-true crime comedy thriller about role-play, romance and the precarious pursuit of self-knowledge. Linklater crafts one his most playful explorations of the individual and the way moral philosophy maps into the everyday lives and seemingly small moments. The film also stars Adria Arjona (Morbius) and Austin Amelio (The Walking Dead).
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Sales: CAA Media Finance, Cinetic Media (U.S.), AGC International (International)
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Premiere Date: Sept. 11, 2023
Panelist: Richard Linklater
Key Quotes: “It’s always such an elusive thing, who’s a character, what’s a story or situation that would make you want to make a film. Of all the stories, fiction and non-fiction, that come at us all the time, why that? I ask myself, ‘Why did I find that character so interesting?’ … Is something worth exploring for years of your life and putting in all the time and effort? It’s a hard question to answer, other than I guess I was just compelled by the character and the underlying situation that is this movie.” — Richard Linklater
“The whole thing is kind of an examination of self, the idea of, “Are we who we think we are, is the self mutable, are we fixed, what does it even mean?’ Notions of identity are pretty unstable these days and that makes it an interesting subject to take on.” — Richard Linklater
“The movie is just a deconstruction of the hitman myth seen from an undercover perspective. There are gangs and there are drug cartels, there are definitely killings, but the retail hitman … that’s what’s kind of ludicrous.” — Richard Linklater