A couple of months ago, Screen Rant talked about 20th Century Fox hiring Kyle Ward to write the script for Hitman 2 – the sequel to their 2007 action film Hitman. Now Coming Soon had a chance to sit down with Agent 47 himself, Timothy Olyphant, during a junket for his upcoming movie A Perfect Getaway. When asked if he was signed on to do future Hitman movies, Olyphant responded:

“It’s not on my schedule. If they want me to do another one, I supposed they could have me, yes. What I can tell you about ‘Hitman’ is that I’m thrilled that it was as successful as it was and it was a really nice opportunity and I appreciate that opportunity.”

It would seem that video games, classic toys, board games, sequels and reboots are all the rage in Hollywood right now. They are also the subject of much malcontent among audiences and bloggers. I even wrote an article recently discussing some of the video games-to-movie ideas being pitched by the studios as of late.

Well, 20th Century Fox is killing two birds with one stone with Hitman 2, which will be both a video game AND a movie sequel.

There’s a new trailer for the upcoming video game-based movie Hitman.

This new trailer actually gives a bit more information about the story in addition to the scenes of people being executed by the lead character “47,” and tons of artsy shots in slow motion. And the lead character actually talks in this trailer. Not much, but hey, it’s something.

After watching this trailer, if it hadn’t been based on a video game I would swear they took the idea from the Bourne series. Of course the books have been around for a while, so maybe they did get the idea from the Ludlum novels. Any way, the trailer follows after the jump.

If like me, you don’t know anything about the backstory of the lead character in Hitman then this is for you.

Below you will find two short comic book-style animated clips which give the background of “47,” the mysterious genetically engineered assassin who is the star of the upcoming film based on a popular video game.

Hitman hasn’t been without it’s share of controversy: The original director was supposedly fired from the film only a couple of months before it’s release date and then there was a rumor that Fox was trying to scrub the movie down to a PG-13 rating from it’s original R. The studio denied the PG-13 story but apparently director Xavier Gens was booted from the director’s chair.

[UPDATE: According to IGN.com Fox is denying that they're cutting the film down to a PG-13.] (Thanks to Jedisprite for the update!)

Can someone please explain to me why in the heck a studio greenlights a movie based on a hyper-violent video game and then wants all explicit violence removed?

Ok. Fine. Yes, I know why: the anticipation of bigger box office and more money.

Hitman, the upcoming film based on a video game (not a concept I get excited about) is set to open in less than a month and a half. Despite this, it has been taken away from director Xavier Gens, who has reportedly created a very violent and bloody film which would match the tone of the video game and have turned it over to Nicolas De Toth for re-cutting and editing.

Big deal, you say? Who the heck is De Toth and why should you care?