Glen Powell Fakes It in the Trailer for Richard Linklater’s HIT MAN

Highlights

Indie GOAT Richard Linklater gives us a lighter touch in the trailer for his new neo-noir Hit Man.
The movie is led by rising star Glen Powell who plays a professor who moonlights as a fake hitman for the New Orleans Police Department.
Hit Man will be in select theaters on May 24th and then stream on Netflix beginning June 7th.

There’s a lot to talk about in the trailer for Hit Man. Like, for instance, Richard Linklater, the certified first-ballot hall of famer of long, wandering independent movies has made what looks like a fun, mid-budget screwball noir. And the fact that current Hollywood golden boy Glen Powell not only stars in this movie (and most other current movies) but also CO-WROTE THE SCREENPLAY. Also, the movie looks really fun.

Netflix, who produced the movie, describes Hit Man like this:

Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater’s sunlit neo-noir stars Glen Powell as strait-laced professor Gary Johnson, who moonlights as a fake hitman for the New Orleans Police Department. Preternaturally gifted at inhabiting different guises and personalities to catch hapless people hoping to bump off their enemies, Gary descends into morally dubious territory when he finds himself attracted to one of those potential criminals, a beautiful young woman named Madison (Adria Arjona). As Madison falls for one of Gary’s hit man personas — the mysteriously sexy Ron — their steamy affair sets off a chain reaction of play-acting, deception, and escalating stakes. Co-written by Linklater and Powell and inspired by an unbelievable true story, Hit Man is a cleverly existential comedy about identity.

In the Hit Man trailer, we meet Gary Johnson (Powell), a scientifically attractive hitman with a manscaped three-day beard. He’s romancing an equally fetching woman, who wants to hire him, named Madison played by Adria Arjona (Andor). Despite appearances, Madison doesn’t believe Gary is a hitman. And when we cut to Gary at his home, eating alone with his cat, and looking less handsome (but still very handsome, obviously), we find out that she’s right.

Gary works for the cops cosplaying as different kinds of hit persons because he’s discovered not everyone “fantasizes about the same hitman”. So depending on the situation he dons various wigs, outfits and even fake teeth to meet the expectations of his criminal clients so, presumably, the cops can nab them. But Madison isn’t just another client. And from there, it looks like things go pear-shaped. In a sexy way.

Powell, who is in casting news every other day for a new leading role he’s nabbed (most recently in Edgar Wright’s The Running Man), co-wrote the movie with Richard Linklater. Hit Man is based on an article from Texas Magazine about the real-life Gary Johnson who cosplayed as a hitman for the cops.

Linklater and Powell have known each other since Powell first worked for the director at the age of 14 on Linklater’s Fast Food Nation and worked together again in 2016’s Everybody Wants Some!! Hit Man was written during the pandemic and has been making a lot of noise on the festival circuit in the lead up to its release in theatres.

Along with Powell and Arjona, Hit Man features Austin Amelio, Retta, Sanjay Rao, Molly Bernard, and Evan Holtzman. And will (we’re sorry) HIT select theaters on May 24th. Hit Man will stream on Netflix beginning June 7th.

Enjoy Glen Powell in Richard Linklater’s Hit Man trailer below and let us know what you think in the comments!