contract killer

Vance attributed the words of wisdom to McCarthy himself, not the fate-obsessed contract killer he created in the 2005 novel, adapted by the Coen Brothers into a 2007 Best Picture winner.

“Hit Man” is based on the unlikely true story of Gary Johnson, a mild-mannered college professor who assisted Houston law enforcement by posing as a contract killer, busting potential clients seeking his lethal services.

Earlier this year, Dennis Kenney, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told The New York Times that the average person’s idea of a slick, skilled hit man is “pretty much myth,” adding that a contract killer is usually “nothing more than a thug who offers or agrees to a one-off payday.”

Initially reluctant to pose as a contract killer, he quickly warms to the job, donning elaborate costumes and accents and relishing finding just the right persona for each “hit.”

A decade and a half after Keaton made his debut behind the camera with “The Merry Gentleman,” in which he also starred as a contract killer given a crack at redemption through friendship with an unsuspecting woman, he’s chosen to direct himself again in a similarly subdued story depicting a man of violence shown a pathway out.