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Hitman (2007 film)

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Hitman
Promotional poster for the film
Directed byXavier Gens
Written bySkip Woods
Produced byChuck Gordon
Adrian Askariah
Daniel Alter
Luc Besson
StarringTimothy Olyphant
Dougray Scott
Robert Knepper
Olga Kurylenko
CinematographyLaurent Barès
Edited byCarlo Rizzo
Antoine Vareille
Music byGeoff Zanelli
Distributed by20th Century Fox
EuropaCorp
Release dates
  • November 21, 2007 (2007-11-21) (United States)
  • December 26, 2007 (2007-12-26) (France)
Running time94 minutes
CountriesFrance
United States
Turkey
Bulgaria
LanguagesEnglish
Russian
Budget$24,000,000
Box office$99,965,792

Hitman is a 2007 action film directed by Xavier Gens and based on the video game series of the same name. The story revolves around Agent 47, a professional hitman. He was raised from birth to be an assassin by the group known as "The Organization" and becomes ensnared in a political conspiracy. He finds himself pursued by both Interpol and the Russian military. The film stars Timothy Olyphant and Dougray Scott. Hitman was released on November 21, 2007. Though critically not well-received, it was a financial success.

Plot

At an unknown location, a group of bald children are receiving tattoos of bar codes and receiving training in firearms and hand-to-hand combat. In these scenes, it is shown that these boys are raised to be assassins and trained to kill.

Years later, Interpol agent Mike Whittier (Dougray Scott) arrives at his house and discovers Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant) in his study, where the two talk about 47's life as a professional hitman working for an unknown contractor known as The Organisation. The movie unfolds as he tells the story.

Three months prior, 47 is completing a hit on a gang leader named Bwana Ovie (Eriq Ebouaney) in Niger. He is told by his Agency contact, Diana (Lisa Jacobs), to kill his next target, Russian President Mikhail Belicoff (Ulrich Thomsen), publicly. He completes his mission as ordered, but before he can leave Russia he is contacted by his employers. They tell him that there is a witness to the assassination and order him to intercept her. When Agent 47 pulls his gun to shoot her on the street, he realizes she's never seen him before. He doesn't shoot her, but just misses being assassinated himself.

His employers reveal his location to agents of FSB, who make plans to intercept him. As he is about to be taken, Diana personally calls him to warn him. She tells him that Belicoff ordered the hit on himself. After a dramatic escape from the hotel, 47 intercepts Nika (Olga Kurylenko), the woman who supposedly witnessed his hit and Belicoff's mistress. He interrogates her about Belicoff and discovers that Belicoff had a body double, who ordered the hit on the real Belicoff so that he could take his place as the president of Russia. 47 was to be killed after the hit to ensure total secrecy.

As Nika and 47 attempt to take a train further into the Russian interior, they are intercepted by more assassins from the Agency. 47 kills five of them before wounding Agent Whittier and his partner. Infuriated at yet another escape, the FSB and Agent Markov (Robert Knepper) order Interpol to leave the country immediately. In the meantime, 47 contacts Agent Smith (James Faulkner) of the CIA. He offers Smith a deal - he will kill Udre Belicoff (Henry Ian Cusick), Mikhail's brother, in exchange for a favor from the CIA. Udre is an arms dealer and slave trader whom both the CIA and FSB have wanted dead for some time. Agent Smith informs 47 that Udre had been planning something with a German arms dealer named Price. Intercepting him could lead 47 to Udre.

47 and Nika travel to Istanbul, where 47 abducts Price from a restaurant in order to pose as Price at a meeting with Udre. 47 later kills Udre and his henchmen, so Belicoff's double is forced to attend Udre's funeral. 47 kidnaps Agent Markov and forces him to have his own FSB agents try to shoot Belicoff's double as he delivers a eulogy for Udre. Disguised as a soldier, 47 manages to kill all of Belicoff's double's guards and takes him into the archbishop's chamber in the church. 47 instead kills him and then allows himself to be taken into custody by Interpol and Agent Whittier.

At this point Agent Smith delivers on his end of the deal, having the agents under his command intercept the Interpol convoy that is transporting 47 to the airport, giving 47 the distraction necessary to escape. The scene then flashes forward to the conversation between Agent Whittier and 47 occurring at Agent Whittier's house. After wrapping up their conversation, 47 reveals the body of a dead Hitman. 47 suggests Agent Whittier go along with 47's plan, admitting that the body in his home is the real 47, implying that Whittier will not survive if he does not.

Nika is shown picking up an envelope from an undisclosed sender. Inside it, there are papers and a message saying that she now owns a vineyard (she had told 47 of her childhood dream of having one). Meanwhile, 47 is watching her from afar, through the scope of his sniper rifle. He then looks at the corpse of another hitman, lying close to him, and says, "I told you to leave her alone. You should have listened." He then turns back, and walks away.

Cast

Production

In February 2003, Hitman makers Eidos and IO Interactive entered negotiations with Hollywood production companies to adapt the video game to film. Twentieth Century Fox eventually acquired the rights and hired screenwriter Skip Woods to pen the screenplay, with actor Vin Diesel executive producing and starring in the film. In December 2006, Diesel stepped down from the role. In January 2007, Timothy Olyphant was cast as the lead with director Xavier Gens at the helm. In March, actor Dougray Scott was cast as Agent 47's nemesis, with Olga Kurylenko, Robert Knepper, Ulrich Thomsen, and Michael Offei also joining the cast. Production began the week of March 27, 2007 in Sofia, Bulgaria and lasted 12 weeks. A second unit also shot in locations including London, Istanbul, St. Petersburg, and Cape Town.

The release of the film was set back a few months to allow for the reshooting of several scenes. These included a sword fight between 4 assassins in a train car, which replaced the original train platform sequence where Agent 47 fought only one assassin. Reports before the film's release confirmed that not only were reshoots were taking place, but that Fox had fired Gens and denied him final cut. Nicolas de Toth was brought in at this stage to soften the edit and cut down material.

47's origins were also changed at this stage. Xavier Gens told an interviewer that whilst they are not directly dealing with the clone storyline, one scene (the original train station sequence) showing a bald, barcoded assassin (Jean-Marc Bellu) following Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant), another bald, barcoded assassin, is very explicit and showed his intention to keep him as a clone. The detail was likely changed to accommodate for the casting of actors of mixed races during reshoots, making it impossible for them to be clones (or at least clones of the same person).

Release

Box office

Hitman was originally stated to be released on October 12, 2007 in the United States and Canada, but the film's release was postponed to November 21, 2007. Hitman opened in 2,458 theaters in the United States and Canada, grossing $13,180,769 in its opening weekend, ranking fourth at the box office. The following weekend, Hitman opened in 12 markets, having the following highlights: $150,355 in 38 theaters in Indonesia, $224,449 in 37 theaters in Malaysia. and $244,329 in 32 theaters in the Philippines. In Taiwan, the film opened in fourth place with approximately $100,000. The film also performed weakly in Lebanon with $19,321 in 6 theaters. As of July 2, 2008, the film has grossed $39,687,694 in the United States and Canada and $60,245,563 in other territories for a worldwide total of $99,933,257, exceeding its estimated budget of $24,000,000. The DVD sales equal $27,858,148 in the US alone, putting the total gross for Hitman at around $128 million USD, not counting television airing rights.

Critical reception

The film received generally negative reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 14% of critics gave the film a positive rating, based on 102 reviews, with an average score of 3.7/10. At the website MetaCritic, which uses a normalized rating system, the film earned an unfavorable rating of 35/100 based on 22 reviews.

Critics found fault with several aspects of the film, including a weak and often confusing plot, dry acting, and extreme violence. However, film critic Roger Ebert notably gave it three stars out of four, saying "Hitman stands right on the threshold between video games and art. On the wrong side of the threshold, but still, give it credit". In 2008, Time listed the film on their list of top ten worst video game movies.

Home video

An unrated version of Hitman was released in the high definition Blu-ray format on March 11, 2008, and features extras including deleted scenes, an alternate ending and a gag reel. This version also features a special digital copy of the film which can be transferred to a portable media device like an iPod. A standard definition DVD was released on March 11 as well in three versions. A single disc theatrical version, a single disc unrated version, and an unrated special edition including many extras, and the digital copy mentioned above. The unrated DVD is one minute longer than the theatrical cut and includes a few extended scenes with more blood. The UK version of the film was available on Blu-ray and DVD from 31 March 2008.

The French Blu-ray version of the film came with 10 deleted scenes, accompanied with French audio commentary by Xavier Gens. Some of the scenes included are the original assassination, in which Ovie survives, is taken to hospital only to be killed via lethal injection by 47 disguised as a doctor. The alternate train platform sequence which features no sword fight, as well as showing the older assassin biting off his tongue to avoid giving answers to 47, and an extended departure sequence between 47 and Nika, which shows Yuri and his men stopping their train and boarding it to look for 47.

An alternate ending in the Special Features of the DVD show 47 watching Nika through his Sniper Scope as she opens the envelope. She then turns down a corner of a small street to be shot dead in a drive-by, possibly by men loyal to the organization behind the fake Belicoff, all while 47 watches.

Canceled sequel and Agent 47 reboot

IESB has confirmed that 20th Century Fox has hired writer Kyle Ward to pen the script for the sequel to Hitman. Adrian Askarieh, Daniel Alter and Chuck Gordon will return as producers. American actor David Hess, who died in October 2011, had been reported to have an as-yet-unnamed role. Daniel Benmayor has signed to direct the sequel. Timothy Olyphant stated on the Nerdist podcast that he had no interest in returning for a sequel and only did the original film in order to pay for his new house following the sudden cancellation of Deadwood.

On February 5, 2013, it was reported that the film will be rebooted with the title of the film being Agent 47, and would have starred Paul Walker as Agent 47 prior to his death on November 30, 2013, with commercials director Aleksander Bach making his feature film debut helming the project. The screenplay was written by Skip Woods and Mike Finch. Shooting was expected to take place in Berlin and Singapore in summer 2013. On January 9, 2014, actor Rupert Friend is in talks to replace Walker as the character. On January 31, 2014, actor Zachary Quinto is cast in an unnamed role.

References

  1. "Hitman on the IMDb". IMDb. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
  2. "Hitman - Box Office Mojo". box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-11-30.
  3. Brian Linder (2003-02-03). "Games to Film: Hitman". IGN. Retrieved 2006-12-05.
  4. Dave McNary (2005-10-20). "Woods to adapt 'Hitman'". Variety. Retrieved 2006-12-05. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  5. Nicole Laporte (2007-01-17). "Olyphant to shoot 'Hit Man'". Variety. Retrieved 2006-01-18. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. Ali Wood (2007-04-05). "Filming starts on eidos movie". Instock. Retrieved 2007-04-09.
  7. 20th Century Fox (2007-04-24). "Hitman is Underway". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved 2007-04-24.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. Todd Brown. "Twitch - Fox Yanks HIT MAN From Director Xavier Gens".
  9. Xavier Gens and Timothy Olyphant discuss Hitman
  10. Pamela McClintock (2007-03-26). "Actors set sights on 'Hitman'". Variety. Retrieved 2007-03-27. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  11. Stax (2007-08-25). "Exclusive: Hitman's New Date". IGN. Retrieved 2007-08-24.
  12. ^ "Hitman (2007)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-11-26.
  13. Conor Bresnan (2007-11-29). "Around the World Roundup: 'Beowulf' Tops Another Modest Weekend". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  14. Hitman at IMDb
  15. "Movie Hitman - Box Office Data, News, Cast Information". The Numbers. Retrieved 2009-11-16.
  16. "Hitman (2007)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2014-01-05.
  17. "Hitman (2007): Reviews". MetaCritic. Retrieved 2007-12-03.
  18. "Hitman (Cream of the Crop)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  19. "Top 10 Worst Video Game Movies". Time Magazine. 2008-10-20. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
  20. "Hitman Gets Unrated Blu-ray Release". Retrieved 2008-01-26.
  21. "Hitman US details!". Retrieved 2008-01-26.
  22. "Rated vs. Unrated DVD differences in Hitman". Retrieved 2008-03-12.
  23. "Whois Lookup". Iesb.net. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
  24. "Nerdist Podcast: Timothy Olyphant « Nerdist". Nerdist.com. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
  25. Fleming, Mike. "Fox Reloading 'Hitman' With Paul Walker As Bald Barcoded Assassin Agent 47". Deadline.com. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
  26. "Paul Walker Stars as AGENT 47 in HITMAN Reboot". Collider. 2013-08-11. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
  27. Kit, Borys (9 January 2014). "'Homeland' Actor Rupert Friend in Talks to Replace Paul Walker in 'Agent 47'". The Hollywood Reporter.
  28. "Zachary Quinto In 'Agent 47′ For Fox Int'l". Deadline.

External links

Hitman franchise
Games
Original series
World of Assassination
Spin-offs
Films
Related
Luc Besson
Films
Directed
Written
Produced
TV series
See also
Vin Diesel
Director and writer
Characters
Related
Categories: