Paul Walker Will Be The New Agent 47 In Hitman Reboot

The first attempt at a Hitman movie, based on the popular video game series, was a bit of a trainwreck. Not only was the Xavier Gens-directed film completely panned by critics - earning only 14% on Rotten Tomatoes - it failed to go anywhere at the box office, opening at number four domestically and falling just short of $100 million worldwide by the end of its run. As a result, the fact that we haven't heard about a possible sequel in the last six years is no big surprise, but no franchise is free from the "R" word: Reboot. And that's exactly what's happening to this potential franchise.

Deadline is reporting that Fox International Productions are now planning to bring back trained assassin Agent 47 for another go-round, this time with Paul Walker playing the titular lead. Skip Woods, who wrote the first movie as well as X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the upcoming A Good Day To Die Hard, wrote the script with Mike Finch and Aleksander Bach - a celebrated commercials director - has been hired to helm. They are currently planning to host production in Berlin and Singapore this summer after Walker fulfills his press commitments to Fast & Furious 6.

My biggest concern is this: if Timothy Olyphant - one of the better actors working today - couldn't make this character work on the big screen, what chance does Walker have. The good news is that it's really a win-win situation for him. If it's a success, he has a whole new franchise to lead and he won't have to share the spotlight with Vin Diesel. If it's a flop he can continue making incredible amounts of cash by making more and more Fast & Furious sequels. So why the hell not?

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.