Directed by Xavier Gens and starring Timothy Olyphant, the first cinematic adaptation of IO Interactive's Hitman video game series was released in 2007, and didn't exactly blow viewers away. The Arrow gave HITMAN a 6/10 review. Oddly, when 20th Century Fox decided to reboot and give the franchise another try eight years later, they gave the scripting job to the same writer who had plotted a lackluster film the first time around, Skip Woods. The resulting film – HITMAN: AGENT 47, directed by Aleksander Bach and starring Rupert Friend – was even less impressive than its predecessor. The Arrow gave that one a 5/10 review.
Okay, so the movies didn't work out. But how about a television series?
Fox 21 is now teaming with Hulu to build a series out of the concepts presented in the Hitman video games, the plan being to hew closely to the mythology of the games. The writer they've chosen to script the pilot episode is someone with experience writing badass shoot-'em-up action, JOHN WICK and JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 scribe Derek Kolstad.
Kolstad will also be executive producing the series with Adrian Askarieh and Chuck Gordon. Bert Salke, Jane Francis, Gloria Fan, and Kira Innes are overseeing the project for Fox 21, while Jordan Helman oversees for Hulu.
The Hitman games follow
Agent 47, a meticulous and lethal assassin with a mysterious backstory.
The games are so popular, there's obviously something to the Hitman property that the films just haven't been able to capture. Hopefully this Hulu series will be a much better, more successful adaptation.
