Hot off the success of his latest film, the critically acclaimed Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood which premiered on Netflix last month, director Richard Linklater has locked down the stars of his next film. Glen Powell and Adria Arjona will star in the director’s upcoming action-comedy Hitman according to Variety.
Hitman has been written by Linklater and Powell and is based on an article written for Texas Monthly by award-winning journalist Skip Hollandsworth. The film will see Powell playing a cop who goes undercover as a hitman in Houston. However, things go awry when he meets a woman (Arjona) who is trying to escape an abusive relationship. Powell’s character finds himself toeing the line between doing his sworn duty and becoming one of the criminals he works to stop. It is also worth noting that an article by Hollandsworth also inspired Linklater’s film Bernie, and the two worked on the script together.
Powell has worked with Linklater before, acting for the director in Fast Food Nation, Everybody Wants Some!!, and Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood. Powell has also starred in Hidden Figures, The Expendables 3, and can be seen in the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick. Arjona has previously starred in films like Morbius, Pacific Rim: Uprising, and Life of the Party. She has also had starring roles in series like Emerald City, Good Omens, and the second season of True Detective. Arjona can also be seen in the upcoming Star Wars series Andor on Disney+, the upcoming HBO series Irma Vep, as well as HBOMax's Father of the Bride remake.
Hitman will be Powell’s first time around as a screenwriter, but it is hardly Linklater's, of the director’s five Academy Award nominations, three are for his writing. He was nominated for “Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay” for Before Sunset and Before Midnight and received a “Best Writing, Original Screenplay” nomination for Boyhood, for which he also received a nomination for "Directing" and "Best Picture." Linklater as a director is known for his personal slice of life films like the Before series and comedies like Dazed and Confused and School of Rock, but Hitman will be his first real foray into the action genre.
Linklater will be producing the film with Michael Blizzard for his production company Detour Pictures with Michael Costigan and Jason Bateman producing for Aggregate Films, and Powell doing the same for BarnStorm Productions.
Production on Hitman is slated to begin this October. Stay tuned to Collider for updates on this project.