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.
![[avatar]](http://p.uproxxcdn.com/photo/1110/thumb)
![[image]](http://cdn.fd.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/angrybirdsmovie_610-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.fd.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/Wolverine-Tripod-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.fd.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/JenniferLawrence-Mystique-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.fd.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/rza-will-star-with-paul-walker-in-brick-mansions-150x150.jpg)
Haha “*titular* hero.” Which describes Denise Richards post-implants. Got kind of a Paul Walker thing going today, no?
By the by, Statham’s progression from Transporter to Parker ends with Walker.
Yeah, that was my problem with hitman…. “Not enough Paul Walker”
… After looking at that screencap, I felt driven to go on IMDb to find out what “Ten” is. I mostly learned that it has characters named Breacher, Monster, Grinder, Neck, Sugar, Pyro, and Harold Perrineau in it, which I find kind of wonderful.
Swordfish is the most late 90′s/early 2000′s movie ever. It is shot with that same green tint that every action movie around then was. And the only part anyone remembers is Halle Berry’s tits (or possibly Heineken)
I loved that movie…most memorable part is Hugh Jackman’s hair….and his butt in those jeans..
That movie was horrible and I really wanted to like it but damn.
Every actor was also horrible in it (yes, Timothy sucked a bag of dicks, and I love him as much as the next bro), and I have a feeling that it wasn’t the actors’ fault.
Also, I was going to ask if there are plans to reboot Super Mario Bros. and ended up looking up the writers from that shitty movie. It turns out one of the writers was beaten and fed to sharks in Jamaica shortly after that movie came out:
[www.hamilton78.com]
[www.findagrave.com]
Harsh critics over there in Jamaica, eh?
Holy crap. I kind of assumed that was exagerration, but… What the fuck would they have done if they’d been able to grab John Leguizamo?
“What the fuck would they have done if they’d been able to grab John Leguizamo?”
They would have spared us the movie The Pest
ANYONE is a far better choice than Paul Walker.
Since when was this a franchise?
Switching out the wrong parts. Olyphant was cool in Hitman. The story sucked.
At least by controlling for the writer they’re approaching this from a place of reason and science.
Timothy Olyphant is far and away better in all respects than Paul Walker. So much so that he will be cast to play Paul Walker in the Paul Walker biopic Paul Walker. It was written by the same guy that did John Carter.
Actually, I can believe Walker as a bald, bar-coded cloned (or whatever) killer more than Olyphant. Keanu might have been the best option, but hey.
First, my thoughts form the default dismissive wank for Walker, followed by slight outrage at a scenario that might actually beg comparison between Walker and the reining man-crush that is Olyphant, but then I realize that Walker is that only man that could be lead in a reboot of an adaptation of a moderately successful video game franchise, and relief washes over me in an awesome wave.
“Reboot” must be the most misused phrase in the movie industry. Every time some creativity vacuum of an exec can’t think of anything better than to make the same movie they did a few years ago, they just call it reboot and suddenly it counts for a new idea. Because I’m sure the Paul Walker version will explore many different facets and ideas from the “original”. But considering the choice of lead actor, I don’t think they’ve ever seen what it’s actually supposed to be based on. When I think Agent 47, I think smirking surfer dude.
i quite liked the original Hitman. but i’m a huge fan of the games so maybe i was biased.
Paul Walker is a great choice for those who hate acting.
I am a huge fan of the Hitman franchise and am totally gay for Olyphant, but he was horribly miscast in the first movie and this is no better. I’ll stick with the games.
As a fellow Olyphant phanboy (see what I did there?) I have to assume they already begged Tim to come back for part deuce and he turned them down, the final salvo being “If you don’t do it, we’ll get, I dunno, who sucks? I know–PAUL WALKER!”
In all seriousness, in Olyphant’s interview on the Nerdist, he all but said he only did the first one because he just bought a big house and needed the money.
Paul Walker…Paul f****** Walker.Are you f****** kidding me?! It´s like watching Oprah walking down the runway with victoria secret models! Olyphant for Hitman otherwise the movie won’t be the same.