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Why Was Glen Powell's Hit Man Turned Down By Several Studios? Director Richard Linklater Weighs In
Director Richard Linklater explains the multiple rejections of Hit Man due to its unconventional storyline before Netflix picked it up for its unique blend of crime, comedy, and passionate romance.
The filmmaker, Richard Linklater, has opened up about the frustrating conversations between Glen Powell and multiple studios, which rejected the script of Hit Man. Linklater who is the co-writer of the Hit Man film along with Powell revealed that their script was rejected by multiple studios, before Netflix picked it up, because of its unconventional storyline.
Richard Linklater and Glen Powell worked on Hit Man without being paid
Hit Man is a romantic comedy action film, directed by Richard Linklater, and stars Glen Powell as the hitman, Gary Johnson. Inspired by a true story it follows an undercover mole who teaches psychology and philosophy at the University of New Orleans. However, he adopts a counter personality of Ron who works as a hitman and helps to arrest the people who hire him. Gary one day meets Madison (played by Adria Arjona) who hires him to kill her abusive husband, but the duo eventually fall for each other, resulting in an unconventional love story.
In his interview with BBC, Linklater revealed the struggles of bringing Hit Man on-screen. The director of the film revealed that he and Powell worked on the script without being paid. The duo went all in crafting the screenplay of the film resulting in a crime film with shots of comedy in it, as the love story of the central actors continues in the background. However, this multifaceted script was not much appreciated by studio houses who ended up rejecting it.
“Glen and I wrote it speculatively and we didn’t get paid anything, we just tried to get the film made. “We really felt we were onto something, we felt we had written a film noir, a crime film that’s also a screwball comedy about a couple that you’re rooting to be together, but I think they wanted it to be just one thing,” the Dazed and Confused director stated.
ALSO READ: Hit Man Trailer: Glen Powell Dons Multiple Characters In Upcoming Action Rom-Com; See Here
Glen Powell had frustrating conversations with studio houses over Hit Man
Talking about getting the studio onboarded for their script of Hit Man, Richard Linklater revealed that the Anyone But You star had quite some heated conversations with studio houses, as the majority of them were not happy with their unconventional storyline, as they deemed it somewhat as non-profitable. The film however was later picked up by Netflix.
Linklater recalled, “Among the frustrating conversations we had with studios and people like that was they wanted Ron to be a real hitman, something they’d seen before. Anyway, then we made the film, and it got a wonderful response. Netflix was always passionate about it, but the others kinda weren’t, I think they weren’t sure if they could sell it to an audience.”
Addressing their multiple rejections from the studios, the Boyhood director made it clear that studios prefer safe and commercial scripts, which already exist, over onboarding novel creations, which don’t seem marketable to them. “You don’t get fired for doing a sequel or an origin story, something that already exists. You don’t get in trouble for what’s obvious and commercial. What changed is that films got greenlit by the marketing department and then it became really safe choices.”
Further talking about the creation process of the script of Hit Man, Linklater revealed that he and Powell wanted to write a film about true passion. “I said, it’s gonna have sex, it’ll be passionate, it’ll be carnal, the desire that drives everything," the director commented. “Glen’s character starts off very dispassionate, but by the end of the movie he’s a different guy, he’s discovered passion, and the movie has this strong chemistry and sexuality.”
Richard Linklater’s comments shed light on the challenges faced in the creation of Hit Man. The filmmaker even praised Glen Powell as the latter delivers a “summer of Glen,” with his projects like Hit Man and Twisters. Hit Man was released on June 7, 2024, and is available for streaming on Netflix.
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