James Gunn almost made a Hitman movie
James Gunn, the writer and director behind Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and DC’s Peacemaker, has shared that he was once in talks to helm a Hitman film.
Gunn shared the news on Twitter, in response to a fan question about what games the director thought would make good movies.
According to Gunn, he pitched his version of a Hitman movie, and the studio really wanted to hire him, but a producer ultimately rejected him for the gig. He went on to make the first Guardians film, and the rest is history.
Gunn would’ve been an interesting choice for a Hitman film, given his love of both over-the-top gore and comedy. After all, though their stories can be serious in tone, the Hitman games are as much about the hilarity of elaborate executions—and the even bigger laughs that come when they go awry—as they are about murder.
Given the timing—Guardians released in 2014—it’s likely the project Gunn was in talks for eventually became Hitman: Agent 47, which released in 2015 to a whopping 8% on Rotten Tomatoes. Would Gunn’s version have been better? We’ll never know.
Still, if you ask us, there’s still room for a Hitman movie with a sillier, gorier streak. We just want to see live-action Agent 47 blowing a guy up with an exploding golf ball, turning a lady into wine, and dropping banana peels. Is that too much to wish for?
The newest game in the series, Hitman 3, is out now on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Google Stadia. An update earlier this year brought a new location to the game.
