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.

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Hitman came out a couple years ago, it didn’t make that much money ($39 million domestic), and pretty much everyone said it sucked.  Which in Hollywood means… yay, let’s make a sequel! Hookers and cocaine for everyone!

Greenlight my acute sense of apathy, Deadline:

20th Century Fox has Spanish helmer Daniel Benmayor in the crosshairs to direct Hitman 2. Will original star Timothy Olyphant return? That is unclear at this point.  Benmayor, the Barcelona-born NYU grad created a following shooting Spanish commercials for  Sony PlayStation, Renault, Mercedes, Heineken and Samsung. His feature debut came on the Spanish language action film Paintball, in which adrenaline junkies get dropped in a dense forest for a paintball match, and find that someone is using real ammo.

Daniel Casey has written the most recent draft, which Kyle Ward was originally hired to write. The sequel includes elements from the vidgame Hitman 5. Agent 47 is a beaten man and must build himself back psychologically and physically to reclaim his mantle as world’s most feared assassin.

A foreigner who directs commercials is handling the unwanted sequel to a film based on a video game?  Why, this sounds great.  Oh hello there, dismissive wank, I didn’t even hear you come in.  Sit down, sit down, there is much to discuss.

Much as I love Timothy Olyphant, Hitman was a movie based on a video game based on an amalgam of b-movies that pretty much everyone hated. But of course Fox wants a sequel.  Or as IESB puts it:

IESB has confirmed that 20th Century Fox has hired writer Kyle Ward to pen the script for the sequel to Hitman!  The original Hitman movie was a bona fide hit released in 2007 with an estimated gross of 100 million dollars in worldwide box office receipts not including DVD sales and television broadcast rights.

Now, I guess I don’t understand the movie business.  Because it seems to me, if you open a pizza place, and everyone on the block comes to the grand opening and buys a slice, but then they spend the next week pissing out their ass and talking about how much your pizza sucks, your receipts may not be the best indicator of the public’s appetite for more of your pizza.   Or as a Fox Exec might say, “Dude! Everyone’s talking about your pizza!”

Check out the new international trailer for Hitman here.

In the last week before it’s release, Hitman has a new international trailer.  I know it’s based on a video game and all, but dare I say it, it looks kind of good.  Granted, I found the mere fact that they didn’t cast Vin Diesel or any wrestlers or rappers and the trailer didn’t feature any music by Korn, Linkin Park, Disturbed, etc. pleasantly surprising. 

It’s sad that I’ve come to assume that any movie that features prominently the tits and fire factor will treat its audience like WWE enthusiasts.  

Of course, it is still about a killer who has an attack of conscience because of a girl…  Pff, chicks, man.

In related news, I called up some Asian chicks I know and we’ll be making a porno remake of this called Agent 69. 

A while back, the rumor going around was that Fox had taked control of Hitman away from director Xavier Gens.  Despite denials from Fox, Hitman star Timothy Olyphant made recent statements implying Gens was fired.

When asked whether Gens was there for the re-shoots, Olyphant replied, "He’s involved. I saw him when I was there [doing the reshoots] but he did not direct the reshoots. I heard the talk on that, that he was fired. I kept saying I was trying to get that guy fired for months. They finally fired him? Fuck! I was saying that forever. He doesn’t speak English, didn’t anybody see that?" [Source]

Though sources say Olyphant seemed to be joking about that last part, his hatred of foreigners became clear when he asked an Asian reporter for "sucky sucky" and pushed a Hispanic busboy down a flight of stairs.  Yes, the press conference was at a restaurant, what’s so strange about that?

Anyway, if these rumors are true, it’s a big-time disappointment.  I expect one thing and one thing only out of a video-game movie: auteurship.