Official confirmation of
Timothy Olyphant's casting as Agent 47 in the
Hitman movie has come through, but it should be no surprise to any regular readers of this site. What is interesting in the
Variety article though, is they claim that
Vin Diesel "
opted out" of starring in the movie so he could shoot
Babylon A.D. That would surely indicate that Vin Diesel was their first choice and the fact that he was attached to the project for so long was because the studio wanted him in the role. I've said before on this site, that Vin Diesel was PERFECT for the role and for me, it's such as shame he won't be starring in the movie. Olyphant's deal also allows for future sequels in what 20th Century Fox hope will be a big franchise for them. Of course it all depends on how well the first movie goes down, which I believe is still on schedule to be released before the end of the year. source -
variety