Screen Rant » hitman

Timothy Olyphant Open to Hitman 2

Paul Young — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:30:52 +0000

A couple of months ago, Screen Rant talked about 20^th 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.”

I would hope that 20^th Century can get Olyphant on contract to play Agent 47 again. He is by no means irreplaceable but I like to see some continuity in term of actors playing characters. When studios start replacing guys in the lead role I get nervous. I like Edward Norton but using him to replace Eric Bana in The Incredible Hulk was iffy in my book at first – although ultimately it turned out to be a fantastic move for the film and the franchise.

There could always be the possibility that Olyphant is too busy to star in another Hitman. With A Perfect Getaway releasing next week and a starring role in the George Romero remake The Crazies, it’s quite possible he could bow out due to scheduling conflicts.

If the studio decides not to go with Olyphant, what other actor would be bald enough to hold Agent 47’s pistols? Jason Statham perhaps?

Do you want Timothy Olyphant to come back as Agent 47 or is there someone else you would prefer to see?

There is currently no release date for Hitman 2.

Source: ComingSoon

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Hitman 2 Has a Writer in its Crosshairs

Paul Young — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:39:26 +0000

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

20^th Century recently announced the hiring of Kyle Ward to write the script for Hitman 2. A sequel to this video game movie may not be a bad thing. 2007’s Hitman was, by all financial marks, a huge success. It only took $30 million to produce Hitman but it eclipsed the $100 million mark worldwide, and that doesn’t include DVD sales. Anytime a movie brings in three times what it took to make it, we can always expect a sequel.

No word yet on whether Timothy Olyphant will return to play Agent 47 but unless there is a big contract dispute or scheduling conflict, I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t. Adrian Askarieh, Daniel Alter and Chuck Gordon, however, are already confirmed to return as co-producers.

Kyle Ward may turn out to be a very good choice as a writer. He has two other scripts currently in project development: Liongate’s Kane and Lynch starring Bruce Willis and the Universal/Platinum Dunes project, Fiasco Heights.

The only exposure I had to Hitman the video game before seeing the movie was watching the occasional video game trailer online and seeing the box on the shelf at Best Buy. I think the limited exposure helped me enjoy the movie a bit more than others. My friend is a diehard fan of the game series and his comments seemed to echo those of critics at the time. People seemed to think that the movie did not follow the game precisely, and in the video game/comic world that is a BIG no-no! Occasionally though, creative liberties are a necessary evil that can’t be avoided to make the movie flow better.

Personally, I enjoyed Hitman the movie although Screen Rant’s Vic Holtreman was a tad miffed at 20^th Century Fox removing a lot of the violence that made the game so popular. Olyphant had the look of Agent 47 down and Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace) was beautiful and alluring as Nika Boronina. I thought the movie was very well paced, the action was fun and in some places very original.

If Kyle Ward can deliver the same thing this time around, then Hitman 2 should still do well at the box office.

Did you enjoy Hitman and do you think a sequel is warranted?

Hitman 2 currently has no release date.

Source: IESB

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New Hitman Trailer

Vic Holtreman — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:26:31 +0000

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.

Official site: HitManMovie.com

Hitman opens on November 21st.

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Hitman Backstory In 5 Minutes

Vic Holtreman — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 20:09:52 +0000

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.

These sorts of things usually don’t bode well for a movie, but I guess the proof will be on the big screen when the film is released this month.

Personally I haven’t been too fired up about this one. It just looks like a typical hyper-stylish, over the top action flick. I’d rather see John “Die Hard” McLane tear things up than some guy I’ve never heard of, but I guess there are folks out there who know this guy due to the game.

One other thing: Although these are supposed to be related to the movie, some of what’s in these episodes doesn’t seem to jive with what was shown in the trailer, so maybe one of you who is more familiar with this can clear up any confusion.

Anyway, here are the two clips:

If you want to see the trailer head on over to Yahoo! Movies.

Hitman opens on November 21st.

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Fox Sanitizes Another Movie: Hitman

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:50:59 +0000

[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?

Because he’s the same guy that was brought in to be “the cleaner” for what turned out to be the PG-13 rated Live Free or Die Hard that was released this past summer.

Now that film wasn’t awful (I actually enjoyed it for the most part) but I wonder how much better a balls-out, R-rated Die Hard 4.0 would have been than the squeaky clean version we were given. I also wonder if it might have made even more money had Fox stuck with the traditional R-rating for the film. As it was, it barely squeaked by in profitablility at the U.S. box office, earning only about $24 million more than it’s production cost. What saved that movie’s bacon was the overseas box office which earned it almost twice as much as the U.S. take.

Of course that wasn’t the first time Fox took a film that should have been R-rated and turned it into a PG-13 film so that parents could bring the kiddies to watch. Let’s not forget about the first Alien vs Predator, shall we?

Unfortunately Fox must have looked at this as a successful strategy and now they’re going to apply the same sanitization process to Hitman. A movie about an assassin out to purge evil from the world. Using lots and lots of guns.

For some reason Fox came to their senses and is allowing the upcoming Aliens vs Predator: Requiem film to go out with an R-rating. No doubt due to feedback on the ‘net that told them that they’d actually put more butts in seats with the more explicit footage.

I’m certainly not a proponent of violence in films just to have it there and so far the trailers for Hitman haven’t really impressed me, but if you’re going to portray extreme violence via gunshots and the like in a movie you should show the blood, gore and other consequences of it.

Source: TwitchFilm via Filmstalker

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