Exclusive: Rupert Friend, Zachary Quinto & Hannah Ware talk Hitman: Agent 47

Hard as it is to believe, it has almost been eight whole years since we last saw a HITMAN film. In 2007, 20th Century Fox attempted to kickstart a film franchise based on the popular video game about a lethal cloned assassin. While the film (which went through much post-production tinkering) wasn’t a resounding bomb, its $100 million worldwide gross wasn’t enough to merit a follow-up. Now – almost a decade later, when reboots of franchises are the norm – the time is right to give the game another big screen shot with HITMAN: AGENT 47.

Replacing Timothy Olyphant in the role of Agent 47 is British actor Rupert Friend, whom most audiences know from his role in Showtime’s Homeland. In the film, 47 must contend not only with a mysterious, deadly opponent – John Smith (Zachary Quinto) – but a woman (Hannah Ware) who possesses gifts similar to his own. Whether or not 47 can trust either of these people is a major question for him; whether or not we can trust 47 is the main question for the audience.

I had the opportunity to talk with Friend, Ware and Quinto last week; we spoke about the real videogame movie Friend wanted to make (you’ll never guess), training for all the action and whether or not they see themselves playing HITMAN for the foreseeable future.