On Monday, Deadline announced that Richard Linklater’s feature film Hit Man sold to Netflix for $20 million on the heels of its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival—making it the biggest sale to come from the fall festival circuit thus far. The buy gives the streaming giant worldwide rights to the film, and, per Deadline, there is reportedly a theatrical component to the deal.
Hit Man made its global debut to a six-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month. The film, directed by Linklater and co-written by Linklater and the film’s star, Glen Powell, is loosely based on the 2001 Texas Monthly article by Skip Hollandsworth about Houston’s deadliest murderer for hire. The twist? He’s working for the cops. In the film, things become complicated when Powell’s character falls for a desperate woman (Adria Arjona) trying to escape her abusive husband. A critic for Variety called the film “a true-life screwball underworld romantic philosophical thriller comedy noir about the world’s unlikeliest undercover agent.” Texas Monthly serves as an Executive Producer on the film.
