Glen Powell and Adria Arjona in a bathrub together in Hit Man
(Netflix)

I really want ‘Hit Man’ to get this Oscar nom for Glen Powell and Richard Linklater

Hit Man was released back in 2024 on Netflix and it was easily my favorite movie of the year. While it hasn’t been getting the award season love that I wished it would, there does seem to be one nomination the film keeps getting and rightfully so.

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The WGA announcements were released today and both Glen Powell and Richard Linklater received a nomination for their Adapted Screenplay. The other nominees included Wicked, Dune: Part Two, Nickel Boys, and A Complete Unknown. While each are beautiful in their own way, I do think that Hit Man is unique in how it handled the adaptation of its source material.

Based on a 2001 Texas Monthly article by Skip Hollandsworth, the story of Gary Johnson is real. It just…isn’t what we saw in Hit Man. He didn’t really kill a man and then marry one of the marks. But Johnson did really cater his personas to the person he was trying to catch.

When you read the screenplay, it is a beautiful melding of what we saw on screen and Powell and Linklater’s vision for the story. Yes, I instantly read the scene about X, the Patrick Bateman inspired persona. But the entire screenplay is filled with nuggets of their shared vision that really show just how detailed and brilliant the film is.

While the film itself falls into the romantic-comedy side of things with fun twists and turns, it is impressive to see how they took the true story of Gary Johnson and turned it into what eventually became Hit Man.

They’re worthy of the Academy Award nomination

It is easy to say that I want this screenplay to win because I love the film and that is only partially true. I think that it is genuinely impressive how they took the original article and made Hit Man its own thing without tarnishing what made the Texas Monthly piece so fascinating. If we’re not going to recognize Powell’s work playing all of these different personas or Adria Arjona’s brilliant performance as Madison, I do think that the film at least deserves recognition for its screenplay.

The WGA line-up of nominees are all ones I agree with. I think each of these screenplays are incredibly well thought out and they honor the source material while being completely their own. I particularly loved Nickel Boys and what RaMell Ross did with Colson Whitehead’s novel. And so I do hope that this is what we see more of moving forward with award season. The Academy Award nominations were delayed due to the fires in California and we don’t yet know what they are planning.

But, for me, I hope that Hit Man at least gets the nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Powell was nominated for his work starring in the film at the Golden Globes and it is also up for Best Comedy at the Critics Choice Awards. But I do think, of all those nominations, their work on the screenplay is something we should be celebrating.


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Rachel Leishman
Assistant Editor
Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell's dog, Brisket. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.