Richard Linklater Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

UPDATED with latest: The Toronto Film Festival began September 7 in Ontario with opening-night movie The Boy and the Heron, from Oscar-winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. It kicks off a lineup for the fest’s 48th edition that includes world premieres of GameStop pic Dumb Money, Netflix’s Pain Hustlers, Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins, Kristin Scott Thomas’ Scarlett Johansson pic North Star, Chris Pine’s Poolman, Michael Keaton-directed Knox Goes Away, Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour, Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils, Michael Winterbottom’s Shoshana, Grant Singer’s Reptile, Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt, Lee Tamahori’s The Convert and Alex Gibney’s doc In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon.

Richard Linklater brought his Hit Man to the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday, world premiering the comedy thriller out of competition to a six-minute ovation inside the Sala Grande.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Is it something in the air? At this year’s Venice Film Festival, the unofficial theme appears to be hit men. David Fincher’s “The Killer” is all about an icy methodical professional executioner. Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance” turns on an act of murder-for-hire.

That Glen Powell is a gem of an actor is nothing new, but twenty years into his career, and after stealing the show in a bunch of films and series, we can all finally stop praying for him to get a leading role worthy of his talents. In “Hit Man,” Powell reunites with his “Everybody Wants Some!!” director Richard Linklater for a part that allows him to be by turns nerdy, sexy, and funny, but at all times almost unbearably charming.

It was 22 years ago that Skip Hollandsworth wrote a Texas Monthly article about Gary Johnson, a school teacher who moonlights as a hit man who doesn’t kill people. Now if that doesn’t sound like the formula for a hit movie, you may understand why it has taken so long for Gary’s story to make it to the silver screen, so long in fact that its subject passed away before he could hit the red carpet of the Venice Film Festival where the film is having its World Premiere tonight. Nevertheless Glen Powell never forgot the story and has teamed with Richard Linklater to finally tell it, but it is only “loosely” based on the article. Certain details in the screenplay co-written by Linklater and Powell are made up, and those are the details that actually help make this a hilarious winner, as well as perhaps Linklater’s most commercial movie since School Of Rock. Its quirky true crime element also has a bit in common with Linklater’s Bernie which starred Jack Black. The director seems drawn to this kind of offbeat tale, with some level of truth to it.

On its surface, a comedy about a college professor who becomes a phony hitman for the police department to catch criminals hoping to whack a stubborn spouse or bothersome business associate might seem an odd fit for a European festival noted for heavy dramas and extended runtimes. It helps, of course, that Hit Man, which premieres at Venice Film Festival this evening, is directed by Richard Linklater, a noted master of independent filmmaking for more than 30 years, and that initial reactions to it have been universally effusive.

It’s officially September. Summer is winding down, school is starting, and the Fall film festival circuit has kicked off.

Ellise Shafer Richard Linklater said production on his musical comedy “Merrily We Roll Along” is set to resume soon — pending that the ongoing Hollywood strikes are resolved. During the Venice Film Festival press conference for his upcoming movie “Hit Man,” Linklater briefly discussed “Merrily,” which will be filmed periodically over the course of 20 years. Principal photography began in 2019 with a target release date in 2039, and the film stars Paul Mescal, Beanie Feldstein and Ben Platt.

In Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man,” truth proves stranger than fiction. Based on Skip Hollandsworth’s Texas Monthly piece of the same name from 2001, Linklater’s newest film follows Glen Powell as Gary Johnson, a man so good at pretending to be someone else he could convince clients he was a cold-blooded contract killer.

Jeymes Samuel’s sophomore feature The Book of Clarence, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, and The Boy and the Heron by Hayao Miyazaki are among the titles that have been announced within the full lineup of the British Film Institute’s (BFI) 67th London Film Festival. Scroll down for the full list.

Naman Ramachandran The 67th BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its full lineup, which includes galas and special presentations of films by contemporary masters. As previously announced, Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn” will open the festival and Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya’s “The Kitchen” will close it.

EXCLUSIVE: LA-based Brit Stuart Ford has operated at the sharp end of international film sales and movie financing for more than two decades.

Michaela Zee Bell Canada is ending its long-standing sponsorship of the Toronto International Film Festival, Variety has confirmed. The telecommunications company, a lead sponsor since 1995, will not continue its partnership with TIFF after the festival’s 48th edition this year. “Bell has had a terrific partnership with TIFF for the past 28 years,” the company said in a statement shared with Variety on Saturday.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter New York Film Festival will serve as the world premiere of Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie’s genre-defying series “The Curse,” led by Emma Stone; and Garth Davis’s science-fiction drama “Foe,” starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal. They will screen as part of Spotlight, which Film at Lincoln Center describes as a selection of “significant and surprising films, one-of-a-kind presentations including adventurous portraits of creative minds, one-night only events with live musical accompaniment, bold short films by acclaimed directors, and probing documentaries.” As previously announced, Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” will hold its North American premiere on Oct.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Two labor strikes may be upending Hollywood’s awards season and the film festivals that serve as launching pads for many Oscar contenders, but the Toronto International Film Festival signaled Monday that it still plans to showcase the best in cinema, unveiling its 2023 slate of movies. Alexander Payne, Richard Linklater, Kore-eda Hirokazu and Justine Triet are among the auteurs who will be screening their latest works at the festival. Payne will be on hand with “The Holdovers,” a comedy set in a boarding school that reunites him with “Sideways” star PaulGiamatti, while Linklater is showing “Hitman,” an action-comedy with Glen Powell and Adria Arjona. Kore-eda and Triet will screen “Monster” and “Anatomy of a Fall,” both of which premiered at Cannes, where the latter won the Palme d’Or.

Marta Balaga At this week’s Frontières Market with buzzy project “Worm,” Montreal-based Type One Films will produce the sequel to 2022’s “The Diabetic,” with director Mitchell Stafiej back at helm. Playing Fantasia last year, “The Diabetic” was well reviewed by most critics who caught it.  “It was one of the few Canadian films about disability made in recent memory. It not only explores disability thematically, but looks and feels ‘disabled’ as well: Shot with Hi8 cameras and transferred to 16mm,” Stafiej said. “I realized, after watching it a little while ago, that I am not quite finished with these characters. I’m very curious about where they might end up if they see each other again. I also think that Matt [played by Travis Cannon] deserves some more attention and development. The first film is all about what Alek wants. But what about Matt?” 

“Birds” was selected as a finalist in this year’s ShortList Film Festival, presented by TheWrap. You can watch the films and vote for your favorite here.Austin, Texas has proven the cinematic groundswell for filmmakers from Richard Linklater, to Robert Rodriguez and Terrence Malick (more on him in just a sec).

EXCLUSIVE: Phoebe Tonkin (Babylon) is among the cast leading the indie crime drama And On The Eighth Day from debut feature filmmaker Alexandra Chando, which has just wrapped production in New Mexico.

Butthole Surfers who featured in Richard Linklater’s 1990 film Slacker, has died aged 60.The actor and musician, also known as Teresa Nervosa, died of lung disease, her former bandmates have announced.“Teresa Taylor passed away peacefully this weekend after a long battle with lung disease,” Butthole Surfers wrote in a social media post Monday (June 19). “She will live in our hearts forever.

Pitchfork. In 1993, she underwent brain surgery, which allowed her to perform again.Teresa Taylor passed away peacefully this weekend after a long battle with lung disease.

Teresa Taylor, a drummer for the indie rock band Butthole Surfers who had a small but memorable role in the 1990 film Slacker as a “pusher” trying to sell an unusual Madonna souvenir, died Sunday of lung disease, her former bandmates have announced.

Mediawan has been shaking the foundations of the film and TV world in France and Europe since it was launched in 2015 by producer Pierre-Antoine Capton, billionaire entrepreneur Xavier Niel and financier Matthieu Pigasse.

EXCLUSIVE: Zoey Deutch is set to co-star in the Warner Bros. and Clint Eastwood pic Juror #2 starring Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette. Jonathan Abrams penned the script. Adam Goodman, Matt Skiena, Tim Moore and Jessica Meier will produce.

EXCLUSIVE: Nina Bloomgarden (The Resort), James Tupper (Big Little Lies), Theo Germaine (They/Them) and Paige Collins (Big House) have signed on to star alongside Mary Beth Barrone in the indie erotic thriller Good Girl, which Lauren Garroni is directing, in her feature debut. No details on their roles have been disclosed.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Plan B’s new owner Mediawan is pursuing its buying spree with the acquisition of a majority stake in the Emmy Award-winning company Submarine. The Amsterdam-based company develops and produces international scripted series and feature films and documentaries, and owns the largest animation studio in the Netherlands. Submarine’s film and series credits include the Emmy Award-winning documentary “Bellingcat: Truth in a Post-Truth World,” and the Netflix original production “Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press.” Most recently, Submarine produced Richard Linklater’s latest film “Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood” for Netflix, and the Amazon Prime Video series “Undone” created by Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob Waksberg. Upcoming projects include the upscale drama series “The Kollective” written by “Gomorrah” and “ZeroZeroZero” showrunner Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Rvaglia; as well as “Safe Harbor” which is inspired by true events crime series and is created by Mark Williams (“Ozark”).

France’s Mediawan has continued its acquisitions spree by acquiring Submarine, the international producer behind Richard Linklater’s animated film Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood.

Ellise Shafer Glen Powell is in talks to star opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones in Universal and Amblin Entertainment’s “Twisters,” a sequel to 1996’s “Twister.” “Minari” helmer Lee Isaac Chung is directing the film from a script by “The Revenant” writer Mark L. Smith. “Twisters” is set to release on July 19, 2024. Starring Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Carey Elwes and Philip Seymour Hoffman, 1996’s “Twister” made nearly $500 million at the box office and received Oscar nominations in the visual effects and sound categories. It was directed by Jan De Bont (“Speed”) from a screenplay by Michael Crichton, with Steven Spielberg executive producing.

Glen Powell is in talks to co-star opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones in Twisters, a new chapter to the 1996 box-office hit for Amblin Entertainment and Universal Pictures. Lee Isaac Chung is on board to direct from a script by Mark L. Smith. The film will be co-financed by Warner Bros.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jack Black confirmed in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight that he’s planning to reunite with his younger “School of Rock” co-stars later this year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the comedy’s release. Various cast members have reunited over the years, but it sounds like Black is plotting an epic reunion to celebrate 20 years of “School of Rock.” “All those kids — dig this — they were 10 years old when we made that movie and now they’re all, like, 30,” Black said. “We’re gonna get together and have a 20-year anniversary. We like to jam. I’m looking forward to seeing all of the grownups from ‘School of Rock.'” Black added that he will “100 percent” use social media to upload photos and videos from the upcoming reunion. “School Rock,” directed by Richard Linklater and written by “The White Lotus” creator Mike White, starred Black as Dewey Finn, a down-on-his-luck guitarist who puts together a makeshift band of kid musicians while substitute teaching at a prep school. White, Sarah Silverman and Joan Cusack also starred in the film, while the child actors included Miranda Cosgrove.

EXCLUSIVE: Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein (I Feel Pretty) have closed deals to write and direct Big Pink, an English-language remake of the Spanish dramedy La lista de los deseos for Monarch Media.