Skip Woods first made waves years ago when his SWORDFISH finally got made. His first draft of the script is much better than the movie that turned out so do yourselves a favor and try to find it.
He is in top form here in executing with what will sure be an edgy hard assed R-rated flick. The script after all is about a fucking assassin.
Even though most video games movies have been downright corny, that is absolutely not the case here. Hitman stands on it’s own merits as a testosterone laced action packed thriller while being faithful to it’s video game origins. You don’t even have to be a fan of the games to dig this. I played the 1st game on the PC back in 2000 and although enjoyable, was one of the hardest games to play. In the game you took on the role of Agent 47. His name comes from a barcode tattooed on the back of his head (640509-040147); the last two digits are 47. While 47 is more than capable of using brute force to mow down a couple dozen armed men, 47 is also an extremely creative individual, capable of devising cunning and stealthy ways of eliminating his targets without creating a commotion. 47 is a master of disguises, often donning the uniforms of dispatched guards or civilians in order to blend in and infiltrate an enemy stronghold without being detected. 47 completes all of his assignments with unwavering accuracy, fulfilling all of his objectives and always eliminating his targets without hesitation.
The script faithfully respects those basic elements and it translates well on the page. Its all there – the cunning and stealth of Agent 47 along with his use of disguises. Those basic elements are what made the games fun and successful, hence the 3 sequels. If all you had to do was shoot through everyone to get to the target or boss, it would have been no different than any other 3rd person shooter out there at the time.
In the hands of any other writer and in like any other hitman kind of film, the opening sequence would show the hero/assassin mow down a bunch of bad guys. Boring. Done to death. Put it this way. In the opening pre-credit sequence showing Agent 47 and his handiwork, he does not fire off a single round. His intended target, Bwana Obie, is in Africa and protected like an elder statesman. How Agent 47 executes his target, like he does in the games make you sit back and say – “Oh shit now that is cool!” Like I said, it translates well to the script. Don’t get me wrong, there is a body count and Agent 47 gets into a firefight with guards but not typical of how you seen it in other films. Agent 47 here is some sort of super fucking multiracial ninja. In fact, Agent 47 would kick Jason Bourne’s ass. Hitman has balls and the violence is cold and brutal. This is what the Bourne films should be like.
The Hitman games are all about cleverness and the script is overwhelmingly clever and intelligent. That is the biggest thing the page-turner of a script has going for it, it’s cleverness and intelligence, hence why it gets an A.
For fans of the game, his trademark weapons are here too – the .45 Silverballers, the fiber wire, and syringes.
So what is it about?
This is 20th Century Fox we are talking about here after all and they didn’t take too kindly to our Wolverine script review so unfortunately I have to keep the spoilers absolutely lite here.
Agent 47 apparently left a witness at his last job in Russia so he has to go back to finish the witness off. Upon his return to Russia, everything unravels for 47 and he discovers that he has been set up and now the hunter has become the hunted. 47 also has to stay ahead of Michael Whittier, an ambitious Interpol Agent out of London who has been putting together the paper trail on 47 and hunting him for 3 years now.
Hitman is also a globe trotting adventure throughout Europe.
That unfortunately is all I can pretty much say other than it was a great fucking read.
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