The Hollywood film industry is full of sliding doors stories, little moments that make you wonder what might have been.
A perfect case-in-point: Apparently, only weeks before he was hired by Marvel Studios to make Guardians of the Galaxy, James Gunn was busy pitching a Hitman movie.
The revelation came during one of Gunn’s regular Q&A sessions on Twitter after one user asked if there were any video game franchises Gunn would like to adapt for film. Gunn replied that his Hitman pitch had been well-received by the (unnamed) studio, but that the producer on the project was less than keen on hiring him.
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
As reported by GamesRadar, this isn’t the first time Gunn has mentioned the ill-fated Hitman pitch. He mentioned it on Twitter in a similar Q&A back in 2017, but that tweet has since been deleted (though reports from around that time still exist). At the time, he stated that a primary reason for it falling through was that producers were uninterested in an R-rated Hitman.
For whatever reason, Hitman has proven a surprisingly popular target for adaptation. Numerous attempts at getting films and shows off the ground have come and gone. Only two films — 2007’s Hitman starring Timothy Olyphant, and 2015’s Hitman: Agent 47 starring Rupert Friend and Zachary Quinto — ever made it over the line. A new series is currently in development at Disney-owned Hulu, helmed by John Wick creator Derek Kolstad. There’s currently no word on the setting for the series, though the idea that it would be based on the recent World of Assassination trilogy would seem the most obvious direction.
Anyway, all’s well that ends well. As Gunn says, if the Hitman project had gone ahead, he wouldn’t have been available to take on Guardians, the franchise that sent his career into the stratosphere.
Thoughts? Would you have liked to see a James Gunn take on Hitman? Let me know in the comments below.
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