Let’s face it, game-based movies are typically pretty brutal. That’s probably Hollywood’s way of exacting revenge given just how crap-tastic movie-based games usually are.
Regardless, the two industries need each other and are destined to feed one another for the foreseeable future.
Agent 47 is the lead character in the Hitman video game franchise.
Cue the latest bit of gaming-inspired news: The website Moviepilot.com is reporting that Fast and Furious star Paul Walker has signed on to play Agent 47 in a film based on the Hitman franchise.
47, a man with a shaved head and a bar code tattooed on the back of his head, was played by Timothy Olyphant in 2007’s Hitman, which was helmed by Xavier Gens. Olyphant was making a name for himself based on his Deadwood performance and while Hitman certainly wasn’t the worst game-based movie ever made, it didn’t exactly connect with North American film fans – grossing just less than $40 million at the domestic box office.
It did, however, crack $100 million around the globe – a decent return on a reported budget of $24 million.
According to Moviepilot.com, commercial director Aleksander Bach will helm this Hitman. He will reportedly work with screenwriter Skip Woods, who wrote the original.
“Filming is expected to commence soon in Berlin and Singapore, but we don’t know much past that, as the actual plot is currently being kept firmly under wraps. If the games and 2007 movie are anything to go by though, I’m sure we can expect to see lots of gun and piano wire action when it releases,” the Moviepilot.com piece concludes.
Indeed, as the game centers on controlling an assassin whose main goal is to blend in and kill silently. That works great in video games, but will it work in a feature film? Chances are, based on Walker’s reported casting, that won’t be 47’s modus operandi.
Question is, will movie-goers and game fans alike embrace the relatively niche actor, pushing Hitman beyond the genre market and into a more mainstream vein. Jack Reacher showed there remains a taste for vengeance-based tales, but Walker isn’t exactly Tom Cruise when it comes to box office bankability.