As far as superhero movies go, it’s clear Guardians of the Galaxy is up there with the best of them. The 2014 hit by director James Gunn was a solid box office hit, and so was it’s sequel which hit theatres in 2017.
It’s less known, though that Gunn had pitched a movie based on the Hitman video games before helming Guardians of the Galaxy, but production of the movie did not move forward…
This is because as Gunn has explained, while the studio wanted to have him onboard and make this Hitman movie, one producer refused to greenlit the project. Apparently Gunn’s R-rated Hitman film was a bit too edgy for said producer, as the director said a couple of years back, and the movie never got made.
And apparently Gunn now thinks this is a good thing too, as in a recent tweet (via PC Gamer) he said he’s glad his pitch for a Hitman movie was finally rejected, as he wouldn’t have been able to make Guardians of the Galaxy if the project had been greenlit.
Weeks before I got Guardians I pitched a HITMAN movie. The studio really wanted to hire me, but a producer on the project did not. I was bummed then, but thank God, because I would have never been able to do GotG if they had said yes! https://t.co/0JYQGBsuGY
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) September 6, 2022
The thing is, why is the Guardians of the Galaxy director bringing up the matter now?
Gunn is currently working on a third Guardians of the Galaxy movie (which is currently in post-production), so why does he need to remind his Twitter followers of his desire to make a movie based on the Hitman series of video games in the past?
Maybe it’s the fact that Hitman 3 (the latest video game in the series) has been the most successful entry in the series to date, bringing in more money than any other Hitman game to date for IO Interactive, which as Hitman fans know is the Danish studio behind the Hitman series.
But if James Gunn is now thinking about directing a Hitman movie, there’s always the fact that the last movie incarnation of the series did not enjoy much box office success.
Also, the 2015 movie starring Rupert Fiend and Zachary Quinto got an abysmal reception from the critics, even by video game standards.
The success and quality of the latest Hitman game makes a third Hitman movie something of an inevitability, though. And it would surely be a great thing if it turned out to be at least as good as 2007’s effort by French director Xavier Gens, which starred Timothy Oliphant and Bond girl Olga Kurylenko and delivered almost everything Hitman fans could want in a movie featuring Agent 47, even if it did not score highly with the critics either… It’s still one of the best and highest grossing video game movies made to date, though.
Either way, and taking into account the people behind the Hitman games are now working on a James Bond game, it seems unlikely we’ll see another Hitman movie anytime soon, even if another film version of the games ever hitting the silver screen again is still something to look forward to for video game fans, no doubt.
Read more: The 10 Worst Video Game Movies Made to Date
Hitman (20th Century Fox)