The 'painful' reason 'Hit Man' wasn't filmed in Houston
Co-writers Richard Linklater and Glen Powell wanted to shoot the film in Texas. Linklater says the reason it wasn't is a "painful subject." The film Hit Man, directed by Richard Linklater and co-written by Glen Powell, was originally intended to be set in Houston but was instead filmed in New Orleans. The film, based on a 2001 Texas Monthly true-crime article, tells the true story of Gary Johnson, a police officer who disguises as a contract killer. The change required some changes to match the setting, including a first date scene filmed at City Park and another scene where the pair encounter a crooked cop at Ted's Frostop. Linklater has previously filmed in Houston, most notably parts of Boyhood and Apollo 10 1/2. He credits the change to Hollywood's lack of support for the film industry. Texas-based filmmakers have long advocated for better infrastructure and tax incentives for film projects in Texas.
公開済み : 10ヶ月前 沿って Brittanie Shey の Lifestyle
Eagle-eyed viewers of the blockbuster new film Hit Man may have noticed some deviation from the source material. Directed by Richard Linklater and co-written with star Glen Powell based on a 2001 Texas Monthly true-crime article, the film was originally meant to be set in Houston. Instead, it was filmed in New Orleans, with scenes featuring The Big Easy's Tivoli Circle, the University of New Orleans, Pho Bang restaurant and St. Charles Avenue.
The movie, which tells the true story of Gary Johnson, a police officer who poses as a contract killer, is the second collaboration between Texas Monthly crime writer Skip Hollandsworth and Linklater. The first, the 2011 film Bernie, was filmed in Texas locales including Lockhart, Carthage and the Austin area.
Linklater has filmed other movies in Houston, most notably parts of Boyhood and Apollo 10 1/2, which was based on Linklater's childhood growing up in Houston during the space race. During a recent interview with the podcast Friends on Film, Linklater explained how and why the story deviated from its original setting.
"This is a painful subject," he said. "I was going to do two very Houston movies back-to-back: Apollo, which is really kind of a child (movie), and then, this was my adult Houston movie. And it was written that way.
"I spent a lot of the film kind of explaining how this could happen in Houston, all the colorful characters here," he said. He explains that, as an independently financed film, Hit Man's crew had to take advantage of as many tax incentives as possible.
"Hollywood didn't really buy into what Glen and I were trying to do here," he said. "The financing was being priced together, and incentive programs really do play a part; if it's like $1.5 million more on a low budget, that means a lot."
The change of venue required that Linklater and Powell make some changes to match the setting. That includes a first date scene filmed at City Park and another scene where the pair encounter a crooked cop at burger and root beer stand Ted's Frostop.
Texas-based filmmakers have long called for better infrastructure and tax incentives for film projects in Texas. Louisiana's Motion Picture Production Tax Credit program provides up to a 40 percent tax credit on total qualified in-state production expenditures, including resident and non-resident labor. Texas used to offer a similar program, according to Business Insider. But after spending more than $95 million on the program in 2013, legislators began ramping the program down.
In the podcast interview, Linklater notes that he was part of getting that original program off the ground, but that other states have since developed better incentives.
"It was like, you can go to Georgia, New Mexico," he said of filming Hit Man. "It really sucks because they're our neighbors. And now Oklahoma. We're completely surrounded by states that have very active film incentive programs. They really support this industry, and you have to do that to compete. Texas certainly does it in energy-related industry."
Earlier this year, the Houston Chronicle reported that a local real estate developer was planning to transform a couple of empty warehouses into sound stages for film and television production, but that project is a long way from completion.
And last year, during the state's semi-annual legislative session, Texas politicians passed a new bill allocating $200 million to the incentive program — Powell was even part of the public campaign asking leaders to approve the bill. It passed but went into effect too late to benefit the Hit Man shoot.