Word around the campfire is Phillip Seymour Hoffman* and Viggo Mortensen (fresh off Eastern Promises**) are set to star in Vanikoro for Hitman director Xavier Gens.

The French explorer La Perouse, was wrecked on Vanikoro in 1788. The ship Boussole was destroyed on a reef along with most of the crew. The second ship Astrolabe was also wrecked, but survivors salvaged enough to build a small ship and sailed away. Two survivors remained on the island into the early 1800′s. [BloodyDisgusting via JoBlo]

Ironically, Astrolabe is the protagonist in my unproduced space porno.

Extra Tidbit: Apparently, Mortensen got so into character during the filming of LOTR, that Peter Jackson referred to him in conversation as Aragorn for over half an hour without him even realising it.

Golly, he must’ve been all up in that character! Additional tidbit: Peter Jackson once had an entire chicken leg stuck in his beard after a meal and didn’t even notice.

*Worthy of all the attention he’s getting for his part in Charlie Wilson’s War
**Second most overrated movie of the year behind Atonement

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.