Paul Walker To Star In Rebooted 'Hitman' Film Called 'Agent 47'
Here's a bit of a shocker in the world of video game adaptations. Fox International is going to reboot the Square Enix video game series Hitman as a new movie called Agent 47. Paul Walker will star as the bald assassin of the title, a character last seen in the 2007 film Hitman directed by Xavier Gens with Timothy Olyphant in the lead role.
Agent 47 will be written by Mike Finch and Skip Woods and directed by Aleksander Bach, a commercial director making his feature debut. Oddly enough, Woods also wrote the first movie for Gens and Olyphant. There's more below.Deadline broke the news of this reboot, which will shoot in Singapore and Berlin this Summer. As the character is depicted as bald, with a distinctive bar code tattoo on the back of his skull, Walker will shave his head once press is done for Fast and Furious 6.
The Hitman franchise has always had a cinematic vibe, so a rebranded reboot isn't the biggest surprise here. Nor is the fact that Walker has been cast in the lead. It's that Skip Woods, writer of this month's A Good Day To Die Hard and X-Men: Origins Wolverine, is getting another shot at scripting. He already wrote this movie, in 2007. How often does someone get a second chance at an adaptation like this and what does it say about the original work?
All it all, it feels kind of curious, until you realize the original film only cost $25 million and made almost $100 million. Plus, Walker is a good international draw.
Here's a commercial by Bach: