The Hitman video game franchise is pretty popular, as people seem to love the story of Agent 47 assassinating mean dudes left and right as he learns the true story of the secret cloning experiment that is manufacturing killers. (Forgive me, purists, if that’s not entirely accurate.) Unfortunately, the 2007 film based on the game wasn’t as popular, having only earned $39 million in the U.S. and $60 million more worldwide.
While the film was cast with mostly unknown actors, including a pre-Justified Timothy Olyphant, who simply wasn’t ready to carry an action franchise, it wasn’t necessarily terrible. But I guess it makes sense that Fox International Productions would want a clean reboot Hitman, this time as Agent 47 and with Paul Walker as the titular hero.
They’ve set The Fast And The Furious‘s Paul Walker to star in Agent 47, an action film that was written by A Good Day To Die Hard‘s Skip Woods and Michael Finch and will be directed by Aleksander Bach, a highly regarded commercials director making his feature helming debut. (Via Deadline)
You can view Bach’s commercial portfolio here, as it mostly features Mercedes ads and one really f*cked up acid trip for Marlboro. So what about that Skip Woods fella? Has he written any movies I’ve heard of?
Has this ever happened before? A film gets the reboot and the studio hires the same writer? What a fascinating second chance. Ultimately, Fox is saying that the first one sucked because of director Xavier Gens and Olyphant, which is impossible because Olyphant can do no wrong. (To be clear, Olyphant is a far better choice for any role ever written than Walker.)
Either way, Fox wants to move forward with this potential goldmine, and Walker is ready to show us just how serious he is:
Walker will shave his head…
Get the Oscar ready now.