Good Ol’ Fox Planning ‘Hitman’ Sequel

It has been well-documented my disdain for much of what is coming out of 20th Century Fox’s camp lately.   Particularly their action department, and the massive drop off when it comes to the quality of 20th Century Fox Action 10-20 years ago vs. 20th Century Fox action in the past decade, has caused me a certain amount of agitation.

It isn’t that ideas aren’t coming their way.   ‘Hitman’ and ‘Babylon A.D.’ could have and probably should have been memorable actioners that rivaled anything the studio put out pre-‘Daredevil’.   Instead of making R-rated action movies for the millions of adults out there who still like to go to movies, they chopped these movies all to hell, (thanks to the vicious editor’s knife of one Nicolas De Toth) and attempted to make them more accessible for all ages.   Never mind that ‘Hitman’ got released with an R rating, anyway.   It’s like they tried to get it down to PG-13, failed, and said, “Screw it.   Let’s just release this piece of crap and make whatever bank we can off it.”

I thought it meant something when ‘Hitman’ pulled in less than $40 million domestic.   Granted, it made nearly $100 worldwide against a $24 million budget, but those local numbers sure weren’t anything to break open the Cristal over.

Evidently the execs over at Fox are thinking differently.   They have hired a writer to begin work on a sequel to the 2007 “hit”.   That writer is Kyle Ward, who has already written the screenplay for the Platinum Dunes thriller ‘Fiasco Heights’ and the Bruce Willis-starring, video game adaptation ‘Kane & Lynch.’

This raises a rather interesting question.   What poor, up-and-coming director are they going to hire to shoot this thing?   What filmmaker is going to have ‘Hitman 2’ taken away from him in the 11th hour only to have Fox’s hand-picked editors tear his vision all to hell?   It sure won’t be Xavier Gens, who directed the first ‘Hitman.’   The feeling is that bridges were burnt on both sides in the dealings Gens had with Fox on that film.   Neither party is going to want to deal with the other any time soon.

It will also be interesting to see if Timothy Olyphant returns to the role of Agent 47.   The first film was designed, it seemed, to be his breakout performance that would launch him towards A-list stardom.   It didn’t happen, and, two years later, he’s starring in the remake of ‘The Crazies’ for Overture.   He might be jumping at the chance to make a second go at the ‘Hitman’ franchise, but you never can tell.   Fox may even want a different face in the lead role, and this new film may, eventually, turn out to be a sort of relaunch of the potential series.

So, yes, ‘Hitman 2’ is happening.   20th Century Fox is fully behind it, and a screenwriter has been hired to pump out a first draft.   We’ll all have to sit back and see what happens with this project between now and the film’s eventual release.

Source: IESB