Hitman

[MacGuffin]

Teaser Trailer here.

Release date: October 12, 2007

Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko, Robert Knepper, Ulrich Thomsen 

Director: Xavier Gens

Premise: Based on the video game, a gun-for-hire known only as Agent 47 (Olyphant) is ensnared in a political conspiracy, which finds him pursued by both Interpol and the Russian military as he treks across Eastern Europe. hired by a group known as "The Agency" to kill targets for cash.

[Pubrick]

if i never see another movie about a hitman, it'll be too soon.

[cron]

marshall bullock as agent 47. dammit

[Stefen]

I thought this was going to be based on the comic by Garth Ennis and John McCrea.

Too bad. That would have been MUCH better.

[ponceludon]

Standing with your arms folded over your chest and a gun in each hand, pointing in each direction, is such a contrived pose.

[MacGuffin]

First look: Olyphant learns to get in the game for 'Hitman'
By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY

Timothy Olyphant might not seem the obvious choice to play one of the most iconic figures in the video-game universe. His gaming experience began with Pac-Man and ended with Ms. Pac-Man.

But when he was tapped to play Agent 47 for the big-screen adaptation of Hitman, Olyphant became a quick study.

Instead of simply buying and playing the assassin video game, Olyphant researched when it became a hit and why.

He was surprised by what he found.

"Some video games have a real back story; some are more about the look," says Olyphant, who played the villain in this summer's Live Free or Die Hard.

Olyphant considers the Hitman game a rare combination of both and says he underestimated the fan base for video games. He was at a premiere recently with his friend Aaron Eckhart, who plays the villain Two-Face in next year's Batman installment The Dark Knight.

"A kid came up to him and asked if he was really going to play Two-Face," Olyphant says. "Then he turns to me and asks if I'm really going to play the Hitman. It shocked me. I realized that video games have become like comic-book movies."

Well, sometimes. Though adaptations such as Tomb Raider and Resident Evil have been box-office hits, it has been game over for others (Doom, BloodRayne).

And Olyphant knows that the movie may rankle some die-hard gamers with Hollywood twists. Like, say, having a female in it (played by Olga Kurylenko). In the movie, Agent 47 thinks he has completed a routine assassination, only to become the hunted.

"I know people want you to be true to the game, but no one really wants to go pay for a movie to watch a video game," he says. "And, look, it's a movie. You've got to have the girl in it. I just hope the fans feel I'm the character they're used to."

Resident Evil star Milla Jovovich has some advice: Let your inner geek fly.

"I wasn't a big gamer, either," says Jovovich, whose Resident Evil: Extinction arrives Sept. 21. "The only thing I played was Mario Bros. But once you get into those characters, it's fun."

Standing with your arms folded over your chest and a gun in each hand, pointing in each direction, is such a contrived pose.

[matt35mm]

If it was good enough for Buddha, Jesus, and The Matrix, then it's good enough for Hitman.

[MacGuffin]

New Trailer here.

[pete]

Powder got angsty.

[MacGuffin]

Between this and Live Free Or Die Hard, it just proves that Olyphant is not leading guy material. His character in Go was more of a tough guy than the aforementioned roles. The story is too complex for a mindless action film. I'm not a gamer, so I dunno about the source material, but I imagine the game had more and better action than presented here. Besides Kurylenko, the only reason to watch the film is to see Desmond from Lost do his take on Rahad Jackson and Tony Montana.