Summary
- Glen Powell’s film “Hit Man,” co-written with Richard Linklater, showcases his talent as a writer and star.
- Powell’s career evolution includes his first feature screenplay, with more projects in the works.
- Young stars like Powell are taking charge of their careers, pushing for original ideas in the industry.
Glen Powell does seem primed to be the next big movie star. After years of turning out great scene-stealing performances on series like Scream Queens or films like Everybody Wants Some!!, it seemed his role as Hangman in Top Gun: Maverick put him on everybody’s radar. Over the past year, he has seen great success with the surprise rom-com hit Anybody but You at the end of the 2023 holiday season and soon will headline the highly anticipated Twisters, a sequel to the 1996 film Twister.
Released between those movies is Hit Man, from director Richard Linklater. The film premiered at the 80th Venice Film Festival in September 2023 and earned extremely positive reviews. The film got a limited theatrical release on May 24, 2024, before it hit Netflix on June 7, 2024. It sees Powell star as a man who poses as a hitman and gets the police to arrest those who hire him, but things go south when he begins to fall for one of his clients, played by Adria Arjona. Interestingly, not only is Powell the star of the critically acclaimed film, but he is also one of the co-writers. Here is why Hit Man is Powell’s first credited film as a screenwriter and how it was almost a more popular IP.
Powell’s History As a Writer
Hit Man is based on an article of the same name by author Skip Hollandsworth that was published in Texas Monthly back in 2001. Hollandsworth is a writer and co-editor of Texas Monthly, and he previously worked with director Richard Linklater on the script for 2011’s Bernie — also adapted from one of Hollandworth’s articles. Linklater had read the article when it was published and had floated the idea of making a film of it, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, things became serious when Powell approached Linklater about the article and asked if he had heard of it, and the two then began working on the script.
Powell had already collaborated with Linklater twice before. The first was in 2016 when Powell played a role in Everybody Wants Some!!, and then in 2022’s animated coming-of-age family drama Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, which wrapped filming just before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns began in the United States. It was shortly after the premiere of Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood premiered on Netflix that the plans for Hit Man were announced on May 11, 2022.
Powell’s Writing Journey in His Own Words
Powell had previously written the 2011 short J.A.W., but it was clear with Hit Man he wanted to take a new approach to this film. While Hit Man is Powell’s first credited feature-length screenplay, it was far from his first time writing a script. During an interview with Collider‘s Perri Nemiroff, Powell spoke about how he had sold many scripts before, but they never got made.
“There are some great writers, even at the studio level, that are some of my favorite writers that have never had a credit made, and every time I read their scripts, I go, ‘this is unbelievable. They’re so talented. But Hollywood is not a meritocracy and just because you write something compelling and great there’s a thousand other people that have to say yes to get that movie to the screen”.
Just because Hit Man is Powell’s first script to make it to the big screen, does not mean it was easy. Hit Man was made independently and later acquired by Netflix following the positive reaction to the premiere on the film festival circuit. While one would imagine having a big-name director like Richard Linklater would make it easier, studios were still concerned. Linklater has praised Powell for pushing the film to tackle many different tones and genre mashups, but that made the studios nervous. Powell said in that same interview with Collider:
What you realize is the genre mash-up of this movie — what we found to be the opportunity of something truly original, something that we really felt had something to say, something that was exciting and sexy and had thrilling elements and romantic elements, but it was kind of screwball — the business didn’t know what to do with it. And I don’t know what that’s taught me necessarily, but the reaction to it has taught me a lot, which is trusting your instincts.
Captain Planet Was Supposed To Be Powell’s First Script
While Hit Man will be Powell’s first feature screenplay, it was not supposed to be. Back in October 2016, Powell signed on to pen the screenplay for a live-action film version of Captain Planet alongside co-writer Jono Matt. Captain Planet was set up at Paramount Pictures through Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company, Appian Way. However, the project was scrapped, likely due to a rough few years at Paramount Pictures that included notable box office disappointments like Monster Trucks, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, and Star Trek Beyond.
The project then moved over to Warner Bros. but was caught up in the various shake-ups following Discovery’s merger with WB and the studio putting emphasis on refocusing their DC Universe under James Gunn. Powell himself said he would want to play that superhero despite having expressed disinterest in playing any other superhero apart from maybe Batman. Recently, during the press tour for Hit Man, he confirmed that Captain Planet is still in development.
Glen Powell: Getting the Credit He Deserves
Actor Glen Powell has finally reached stardom, but it should have come much sooner for the 35-year-old Texan.
Powell Is Evolving His Career
Hit Man is Powell’s first feature film screenplay, but it certainly is not his last. In addition to Captain Planet, Powell has more projects he is working on that will stretch his creative muscles beyond acting. Earlier in 2024, it was confirmed that he and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness screenwriter Michael Waldron will be working on a half-hour comedy series for Hulu titled Chad Powers.
The series is based on the character created by Eli Manning for his EPSN+ docuseries Eli’s Places, where Manning donned a wig and prosthetic makeup to go undercover during Penn State football tryouts to see what the walk-on process for college football was like. Powell will be the series co-creator, co-writer, and executive producer and will star in the series.
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It appears that a new, younger generation of talent is taking a more proactive approach to taking charge of their careers. Powell’s Anyone but You co-star Sydney Sweeney founded her own production company, Fifty-Fifty Films, and produced the horror film Immaculate after she had auditioned for the part back in 2014 and revived the project.
Additionally, former Riverdale star Camila Mendes has started producing her own films, with two of them, Upgraded and Musica, being released in 2024 to positive reviews. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire star Mckenna Grace is still a child star and already has a production company she named after a song from the 2019 film Cats, and she is already developing her own projects.
All of these new young stars are taking more active control of their careers. At a time when IP films are struggling at the box office, a paradigm shift might be occurring where they can use their star power to get mid-budget films based on original ideas or outside-the-box adaptations like Hit Man and Captain Planet. Powell has been in the industry since he was a kid, but it feels like his career is only just beginning.
Check out the trailer for Hit Man below.
