Just six years after the original missed its target, 20th Century Fox are rebooting the
Hitman film franchise.
Deadline say
Fast & Furious star Paul Walker will lead the movie titled
Agent 47, a new attempt at making an adaptation that leaves up to the quality of the hit Square Enix video game. But before you get too excited (which granted is difficult when we are talking about a Paul Walker movie), the movie is to be co-written by Skip Woods (
A Good Day To Die Hard, Swordfish), the man who wrote the 2007 original! So rather bafflingly, we can probably expect more of the same.
Predators writer Michael Finch will help him with writing the screenplay, and the film will be directed by commercials filmmaker Aleksander Bach, who will be making his feature film debut. Agent 47 will shoot this June in Berlin and Singapore after Walker has finished his global press tour for Fast & Furious 6,
Sunday's Super Bowl trailer of which has been reportedly generating 20,000 tweets per hour and knowing how the industry works... Fox were obviously keen to nail Walker down for this as his next movie. (though one wonders why Vin Diesel wasn't approached to play the filially challenged killer).
Released in 2007, Xavier Gens-directed thriller
Hitman was a dire and ludicrous movie, living on as little more than another statistic for why video game movies never work out. Timothy Olyphant stunk up the screen as the bald headed genetically engineered elite assassin with a barcode tattooed on the back of his head, and despite the beauty of Bond girl Olga Kurylenko, my eyes too often diverted to my watch in the cinema, hoping Agent 47 himself might put me out of my misery so I wouldn't have to continue watching the damn thing. Critics hated it (
14% on Rotten Tomatoes) but somehow the movie made almost $40 million domestic and $100 million worldwide, presumably all based on the strength of the video game which continues to sell in bucket loads. Fox had hoped
Hitman would be a franchise of much longevity and perhaps now six years on, they feel they can do an
Incredible Hulk to
Hulk, and simply add a new star and package and hope nobody remembers the original.
Agent 47 will be produced by Chuck Gordon, Alex Young, and Adrian Askarieh. Daniel Alter will be executive producer.
What's your thoughts on a new Hitman movie? Is it already doomed to fail with Skip Woods behind the screenplay?