20th Century Fox’s fresh attempt to turn the Hitman game series into a film franchise is gaining traction. Rupert Friend is locked in to play the title character in Agent 47, and** Star Trek**’s Zachary Quinto is jumping aboard the film.
Aleksander Bach is set to direct the new take on the character, working from a script by Skip Woods (who penned the original) and Michael Finch. Little has been revealed about what the plot will be – or, indeed, how Quinto will factor into it – but if it keeps the basics intact, Friend will be the bald, barcode-sporting assassin who gets in deep with a bigger conspiracy than even he is ready to deal with. Bach is set to start the cameras rolling in March.
Chuck Gordon, Alex Young and Adrien Askarieh are guiding this one as producers, looking to boost the critical reception (the 2007 Timothy Olyphant-starring effort didn’t exactly win many plaudits) while maintaining or improving the character’s earning potential (despite those bad reviews, the first Hitman took in a little less than $100 million worldwide).
Quinto, who is still best known on the big screen as the re-imagined Star Trek’s Mr. Spock, has been busy in the theatre of late, but has also become quite the producer, helping finance All Is Los****t. He’ll next be seen in Simon Helberg and Jocelyn Towne’s indie romantic comedy We’ll Never Have Paris.