Ryan Reynolds’ Hitman’s Bodyguard flips directors a month before shooting

It’s never a good thing when a movie needs to switch directors a month before heading into production. The Ryan Reynolds‘ action flick THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD is about to find out how difficult such a transition can be.

Jeff Wadlow has had to bail on the film due to a scheduling conflict that exists from his current project with Netflix – THE TRUE MEMOIRS OF AN INTERNATIONAL ASSASSIN. That movie, starring Kevin James and Genesis Rodriguezis in post-production, but will require work into the spring. Wadlow was set to depart in order to shoot BODYGUARD, but Netflix called upon their contractual rights to keep Wadlow right where he is until the film is done and he was left with no other options.

As a result, Millennium turned around and secured THE EXPENDABLES 3’s Patrick Hughes to sit in the director’s chair as the calendar starts barreling toward an April 2 production start date for THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD.

Now you may look at this situation and wonder how the hell a scheduling conflict like this even happens. My answer to you would be damned if I know. One would think that if a studio wants to keep a filmmaker on a film, particularly one like this where Wadlow had been developing it for years, they wouldn’t push for it to get going at a time when said director is still working on another project and can’t leave it until completion. Then again, there are a lot of situations where we’re taken aback when common sense isn’t applied and stupidity reigns supreme… so why should this really be any different?

As for what the film is about… a hitman wants to turn in evidence and must team up with Reynolds as a top protection agent to do so as bad guys show up everywhere trying to stop that from happening. It may not sound all that dazzling, but Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Selma Hayek and Elodie Yung are all a part of the cast, so maybe there’s hope.