Ah, 2007. It was a dark time in videogame adaptations. For Hitman fans, there was one film that took Agent 47 to big screen in a way that made many cringe. The movie was met with very negative reviews and up until now, has been something most of us have tried to forget. At least until the actor himself reopened old wounds and decided to reignite the fires of disappointment once more by calling the film a “pile of sh*t.”
Timothy Olyphant took on the role of Agent 47, though many may recognize him now from Netflix’s hit (yet somehow still canceled) show The Santa Clarita Diet. Speaking with Rolling Stone, Olyphant opened up a bit about why he took on the role of Agent 47, especially when it was a premise he didn’t necessarily have a lot of faith in.
The actor also mentioned that he accepted the role more out of a place of desperation than anything else. At the time, he was playing Sheriff Seth Bullock in Deadwood, but during that time the series was originally canceled. Unfortunately, Olyphant had just bought a house at the time and though the entire situation around cancelation ended up being a miscommunication with HBO (though the cancelation did eventually go through), it left him in a position where he felt he needed to scoop up a new role fast.
“You know what, though,” said Olyphant to the magazine. “Those experiences were equally valuable oddly enough, those kinds of experiences, perhaps more valuable than these, you know? Find yourself bald in Bulgaria doing some pile of sh*t [Hitman], that you will get up a little earlier in the morning and make you work a little harder.”
He also added that because it’s been over a decade, he also might be remembering the situation a bit more bitterly, but the good news is that the franchise we all love – Hitman – has since recovered and the latest entry into the series has been a smashing success thus far.