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Exclusive: Askarieh & Alter Talk Hitman
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By Kellvin Chavez on
November 16, 2007
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Video games to film translations are a crapshoot for movie studios. While most of them will eventually make their money back through DVD and PPV sales, a high percentage just aren’t very good movies, like Doom or Silent Hill. In this exclusive interview, I had a chance to sit down with producers Adrian Askarieh and Daniel Alter to talk about the upcoming 'Hitman' movie starring Timothy Olyphant. A producer's job is to sell a film project and they are very good at convincing a person that their particular movie will blow you away. How many times has a producer said about their video game movie or Comic book movie or even a graphic novel was faithful to its original source material and will surprise and amaze you?
Daniel and Adrian discuss the Hitman film, future sequels and what’s going on with the long delayed Spy Hunter film. They also spit out some info on more upcoming film projects like Kane & Lynch, Lost Squad, and a movie that looks like it’s finally a go, Jonny Quest.
How did you guys get the rights to do a ‘Hitman’ movie?
Askarieh: I remember very specifically we were sitting in a Starbucks, in Sherman Oaks, talking about what we were going to do next. I told Danny that I’ve always wanted to do a movie based on the ‘Hitman’ games. I’ve always loved that character. I love the way he looks, the world of the game, the genre that the game was in, the international espionage, with this cold-hearted assassin, and it was a very uniquely cinematic game. I said ‘Look, I want to go after ‘Hitman’.’ Danny said ‘This is a great project, lets go after it.’ Literally the next day I called Eidos and said ‘We want to come up and meet with you guys and talk about ‘Hitman’.’ At the time there were other producers after the rights. We went unrelenting after it and didn’t give up. We told them that we were going to do it justice. We weren’t going to do a video game movie, we were just going to do a real movie based on the material. We then brought Chuck Gordon on board, whom I was doing ‘Spy Hunter’ with, and we zoomed ahead from there. It took us about a year to negotiate the rights. It was April of 2004. By May of 2005 we had the rights locked up.
Alter: We went to one E3 where we were already after the rights. The next year at E3 we had already gotten the rights.
Askarieh: Yeah, so from E3 ’04 to E3 ’05 the rights deal transpired. We got it and we went to Fox. Fox bought it immediately, and we were on our way.
How did you guys get Skip Woods? Had you read his work before?
Alter: Oh yeah, we were big fans of Skip. He was one of several writers who wanted to write this. If you have a project with the studio, if you have set it up without any elements attached, so it’s just an open writing assignment basically. People come in and pitch their takes. Skip was definitely one of my top picks, Adrian can attest to that, and he beat everybody out with his take. He just had the most phenomenal way for the material.
Askarieh: We knew which kind of writer we were going to go after. It had to be someone smart, that got the genre, and someone that could give us an R rated movie. Someone who could be true to the feel and tone of the ‘Hitman’ game, but also could come up with the construct of a movie on it’s own. Skip was at the top of that list. Danny was a big fan of Skip. I had read ‘Swordfish’ when I was taking writers for ‘Spy Hunter’, and Chuck and I really liked him for ‘Spy Hunter’ but for whatever it didn’t work out. I always kept Skip in my mind. Then when Danny said ‘I think this guy is the best guy for this.’ we submitted his name to the studio. He was also on the studios list, and this was a very short list, so the studio agreed. Skip gave us a great treatment, which everybody flipped over, and he got the gig.
Alter: By the way the great story, usually writers will come in and pitch you a take verbally, and Skip came in to meet with us. It was more just us talking. He told us what he had in mind doing ‘Hitman’ which was just great. I remember it very well. It was the day of Comic Con, we were both in a race to get down to Comic Con and Skip was just talking with Chuck and us. It was this great, get along, conversation, but not much to discuss about ‘Hitman’. He kind of left the room and I said ‘I think this guy plays it really close to the vest.’ We got the treatment, Adrian and I, and we got the treatment on our laptops. We both read, look at each other, and we were just blown away because you could see the movie.
How close is the film to the video game?
Askarieh: Well, that’s what everybody asks us. We gave Skip a very big bible for the game. It had the world, the characters, the various storylines, and all the weapons that Agent 47 uses. The direction, from the studio, and us to Skip was ‘Let’s make a real movie. One where we are very faithful to the game, but it’s not based on any particular story.’ It’s the amalgamation of several concepts and ideas, but the story that Skip came up with, if you look at it on its own, it’s a uniquely original story. It borrows from the tone, the world, and the background of the characters. Essentially what Skip did was look at all the previous Agent 47 stories and added another story to that cannon. So, if you look at it, it’s just seamless. This full story just happened to take place on the film screen, rather than on the video game console, but it is still uniquely Agent 47. I dare anyone to go see this movie, who is a huge ‘Hitman’ fan, and say ‘They weren’t faithful to the game.’ At the same time it’s an original film story, all on it’s own. If you are not a fan of the game you are not going to be lost. You are going to enjoy it for what it is, which is a first rate espionage thriller.
I am a fan of the game because I played it on PC. One of the things I like about that game is the music. How about the music in the film? Is it the same?
Askarieh: The music is really inspired by a lot of the cues in the game. Obviously films and video games are different. You have to service each in a way that works for that medium. If you look at the trailers and the marketing material, the song ‘Ave Maria’ the reason it’s used is because it was actually used in the games. It just thematically worked fantastic for it, so I don’t think that anyone is going to be disappointed with the music. I just think you have to be very careful, when you are making a film based on anything, you want to first and foremost make sure that the film version is serviced as a piece all of it’s own. You can’t worry about having to use every single element from the comic book for from the video game. The music is just fine in the movie and I think it fits the character, fits the world, and I think no one will be disappointed.
Alter: From Skip’s script, to Xavier’s [Gens] reference to the game, to the marketing, you know it’s ‘Hitman’, and it’s Agent 47. Even going back to the script, Skip didn’t adapt any particular storyline from the game, but he created a story that was in the same milieu. It was the same ambiance, the look and the feel, it serviced incredibly faithfully with the character arch of Agent 47. He just made this incredible story that could very well be the next ‘Hitman’ video game installment. He told a story that also made Agent 47 heroic and accessible for a general audience. That is the beauty of this movie. For the gamers, it’s something that they will really enjoy. At the same time, if you are not a gamer, you will just go see this movie called ‘Hitman’ and you will fall in love with the character, and enjoy being in this world.
There was a time when Vin Diesel was attached to play ‘Hitman’, what made Timothy [Olyphant] the right choice?
Askarieh: We would like to take credit for Timothy, but we can’t. He was the studio’s idea. The studio basically told us ‘We are thinking very strongly about Timothy Olyphant in this role. What do you guys think?’ Chuck had worked with Timothy before, on ‘The Girl Next Door’ and he liked him a lot. I was watching ‘Deadwood’ at the time. If you look at Timothy, he’s got the eyes for the character, you can never tell what he’s thinking. The look that he brings, the weight that it brings to someone who is stealth, violent, and very internal like 47, I think it was right on. We felt that was fantastic. He’s someone that’s been working in the business for a while but is still a fresh face. I think with Agent 47, what you don’t want to do, is you don’t want to bring a lot of baggage to the role. You want someone that just embodies that role. He really does it, and he does it in spades. As much as Danny, Chuck Gordon, and I want to take credit for it, we can’t, it was Fox’s idea.
Alter: When the studio had suggested it, Chuck said ‘If there is anybody who is the next Clint Eastwood, it’s Tim.’ It’s funny because I always thought, even before ‘Deadwood’, that he had the look that he could do that. Then you go watch ‘Deadwood’, I had never even seen ‘Deadwood’ up until the idea was brought by the studio, so I went home that weekend and on HBO demand watched all the episodes. You are like ‘Man, this guy can just kill it.’
Was he scared to shave his head?
Askarieh: There was some trepidation, as would be normal with anyone who has a full head of hair like his, but good actors always do what it takes to really nail the role. He did that, and he looks very bad ass with a shaved head. You can’t do Agent 47 with a full head of hair.
What happened with this director? He was fired, he wasn’t fired, and then he was. There was a re-shoot.
Askarieh: It’s funny about the Internet. At first I found it very amusing. You sit back and look at all the stuff that is being said about other people’s movies. But then, when your movie’s turn comes up, you look at it a little bit differently. No one was fired from this movie. Xavier Gens has been on this movie from the beginning to end. I don’t know how those rumors began. I don’t know if some people sit in their rooms and just come up with ideas or stories, new angles, but no one was fired from the movie.
I think that they had a press conference with Timothy, and he’s the one that confirmed it, that he was fired.
Alter: I think he did that in a joking manner.
Askarieh: I read those interviews, I don’t think he meant he was fired. I think if you look at it closely, I don’t think that Timothy ever said that anyone got fired. I’m here to tell you, no one got fired from the movie.
Is Timothy signed for sequels?
Askarieh: Yeah, there are plans to do sequels with him, absolutely.
Was this the same process, to get the rights, with ‘Kane & Lynch?’
Askarieh: ‘Kane & Lynch’ were a little bit different because I got a call from Eidos when ‘Hitman’ was about to go into production. They told me ‘We have this other property from the top-secret project that we’ve been working on for a year and a half. No one has seen it, it’s the same guys who created ‘Hitman’, IO interactive, which is owned by Eidos. We want you to do the movie.’ I said ‘Okay, can I see what it is?’ They sent me some images. I immediately called Danny and said ‘We got our next movie.’ They sent me the picture that finally ended up on the cover of ‘Game Informer’, and 4 different conceptual images for the two main characters. I was literally blown away. It was a ready-made movie and I knew the people who created the ‘Hitman’ games. I was familiar with how Eidos would market it, and publish it, so that to me was a no brainer. If the project was going to be half as good as what I saw, given the people involved and the people that created it, I just said ‘Absolutely. We would be honored to be involved.’ [Laughs] It was relatively easy. Pretty much, they came to us.
‘Hitman’ is hardcore R, right? They trimmed it down?
Askarieh: No, it wasn’t a matter of it was too hard core, that they trimmed it down. I’m here to say that the film was R and it’s a hard R. Any trimming that took place was as normal part of the process of any movie going through post-production. Again, I think that ‘Hitman’ is one of those films that there is a lot of anticipation for, a lot of built in audience, so people tend to extrapolate what is going on. Fox never tried to water this movie down. This was going to be R from day one when we set it up with Fox. The script writing process, the production, and I’m being 100 percent honest here, I don’t know how that one got started.
Alter: Whether or not something is shot, sometimes if you are doing an R rated movie you have stuff that can go to the point that it will be NC-17, and even that is how stuff gets out. But there was always the intent to make an R rated movie. The film that is released next week is rated R.
Askarieh: Yeah, and it’s a hard R. No watering down took place. No one tried to cut anything. Any cuts that took place in the film were reason that most films go through an editing process. For language, for time, tone, for dramatic effect. Movies like ‘Hitman’ and ‘Batman’, these films are under such high scrutiny that people just tend to extrapolate it, just making facts up.
So basically, whatever was cut will be on the DVD?
Askarieh: You can never say whatever is cut will be on the DVD. My last conversation with Fox home video, they have a lot of special things planned for the DVD. They are really good about putting a couple of version out on the DVD. I think everybody is now, so I don’t anticipate it being different for ‘Hitman’. Nothing has been finalized yet though. Based on what I’ve heard about what they will be doing for the DVD, I think that fans will be please. I think fans are going to be pleased with the movie. It’s amazing to me how some of these rumors get started.
You guys are on ‘Kane & Lynch’, ‘Spy Hunter’,’ Hack/Slash’, ‘Lost Squad’, and ‘Jonny Quest’. On ‘Spy Hunter’, for example, why the delay?
Askarieh: It’s one of the most frequently asked questions that I get from everybody. As soon as they find out what I do, who I am, and what my day job is they ask. ‘Spy Hunter’, part of me wants to say it’s because… Look, lets just put it this way. ‘Spy Hunter’ is such an enormously important project for Universal Pictures and for us. I’m doing that with Chuck Gordon. Unfortunately Danny is not involved in that, but it’s such an important project for Universal. They have supported it financially, and in terms of resources, so much that the plan has always been to get it right. Now, having said that, I think in the last 5 years the business has gone through a change. It’s this paradigm shift that, in my opinion, began in the year 2000. It’s really taking its full form now. People now need to make movies like ‘Spy Hunter’, ‘Batman’, ’Hitman’, ’Star Trek’, ‘Indiana Jones’, and that is exactly what is sustaining this business. Without these movies I don’t think there would be a Hollywood, given the competition from Internet, video games, 500 channels on cable. So ‘Spy Hunter’ falls squarely within that group of movies, because it’s based on a title that has transcended its video game origins. It’s become a huge part of pop culture. People who do not play video games know ‘Spy Hunter’. You have a responsibility to do the right version. Not to beat around the bush, but I think that everything happens for a reason. Everything happens when it’s supposed to. With Paul Anderson on board, with two great writers that are working, based on Paul’s very cool treatment, we are going to make the movie. We are making ‘Spy Hunter’ next year. In my opinion, I was talking to Chuck about this the other day, it wasn’t meant to happen. We had some wonderful people on it, we had some great experiences, and some great writers. We had John Woo on it, but unfortunately it wasn’t supposed to happen then. Fortunately it’s supposed to happen now, with Paul, and we’re making it happen.
I read the Stuart Beattie script and I thought it was awesome.
Askarieh: Yeah, it was fantastic.
So why did Universal opt out, or choose, not to do the Stuart Beattie one?
Askarieh: We actually had the distinct bad timing of turning the Stuart Beattie draft in after ‘Doom’ came out. Perception is everything. Also, Stu’s draft was a little too extensive, everyone thought that, but Stu is one of my favorite people in the business. He’s a fantastic writer and that script is a joy to read. A lot of movies have different scripts that don’t get made. ‘Spy Hunter’ is one of those films. Look, ‘American Gangster’ took 7 years to get made and it had several different scripts, based on what I’ve heard. I think that ‘Spy Hunter’ is a movie whose time has come. We’re getting it banked and finally fans are going to see it in the theatres. I got to be honest, no one is going to be more thrilled than me. That was my first movie in town. It was the first movie I set up as a producer so it always has a close place in my heart. I whole heartedly believe that is the movie, that if done right, it could be astronomically big.
Speaking of Paul Anderson, what does he bring to the table? What made you say ‘He’s the right guy.’?
Askarieh: Everything. He’s a giant ‘Spy Hunter’ fan. He’s a fantastic director. He’s as smart as they come. He’s a terrific story teller. He came up with a fantastically fresh story for the movie, which the writers are basing the script on, and he’s smart. His movies are all commercial, they all make money, and he knows how to make a movie economically. I mean that in the best sense of the word. He gets results out of them. We thought his take was fantastic and he’s a damn good filmmaker. I didn’t know Paul before ‘Spy Hunter’ but now I’ve become friends with him. I think he really is one of the smartest people I’ve met in this business.
‘Hack/Slash’ what’s up with that?
Askarieh: We have a script, a director, we have a studio that is going to make it pre-strike. By pre-strike I mean by the pre June 30th strike. We are about to make a very big announcement on it.
Alter: For me, it’s my little baby. We are going to start, hopefully, in the spring. Todd Lincoln, our director, has an amazing vision. We have some great casting ideas. There’s a big announcement coming very soon. We are going to reinvent the horror genre with this franchise.
Are you a big horror genre fan?
Alter: Yeah, I love horror, man. I’m horror 101, you name it, and I see it. I love horror, ‘Halloween’ is one of my all time favorite films. ‘Scream’ had a profound effect on me when I saw it in theatres. It really is the benchmark. We really want to make the next ‘Scream’ with ‘Hack/Slash’. It’s ‘Scream’ meets ‘Blade’ basically. I think we are really going to be able to achieve that.
And congrats on ‘Jonny Quest’
Askarieh: Thank you very much. I can’t tell you how excited we are to be involved with that project. ‘Jonny Quest’, I grew up with it, I’ve always loved it, and I’ve always wanted to do the movie. I’m a big fan of ‘Indiana Jones’, big fan of Tintin and those adventure films. I believe that when all is said and done, Warner Brothers is going to have their own ‘Indiana Jones’. We have a fantastic young writer on it, who is now sitting at home doing nothing because of the strike.
Alter: He is amazing. This writer will be the ‘it’ writer.
Askarieh: He’s fantastic. He’s delivered a juggernaut in our opinion. I think it’s one of those projects that, come the new year, you are going to hear a lot about. We are excited, Warner’s is excited, and we can’t be happier. We are at a studio that we’ve always wanted to be at anyway. They obviously own the underlying material, but to make ‘Jonny Quest’, and do it at Warner Brothers, is unbelievable.
Alter: Warner Brothers has been amazing. Dan [Mazeau], our writer, is just so talented. We are so honored to be involved in this project. The goal for us is for it to be our ‘Pirates’ or ‘Transformers’.
Askarieh: Yeah, when all is said and done, if there is anything to be said about ‘Jonny Quest’ fingers crossed, I think Warner Brothers is going to have their own ‘Indiana Jones’ franchise.
No casting yet?
Askarieh: No, too early for that.
No director. All this will happen after the strike?
Alter: That’s the plan.
Askarieh: Yeah, unfortunately nothing can be done because of the strike. The foundation is very, very solid on ‘Jonny Quest’.
How true to the series will the film be?
Alter: Very.
Askarieh: Incredibly. I don’t want to say too much about it because I think next year is going to be ‘Jonny Quest’ year. There are all kinds of good stuff coming out. I keep saying it, Warner’s is going to have their own ‘Indiana Jones’ franchise.
What about ‘The Lost Squad’ is that on the back burner because of the strike?
Askarieh: No. Actually, I don’t really want to comment on it in terms of the strike, but we have a good script in. We have two fantastic young filmmakers, they are extremely visual, and they are in the vein of the Wachowski brothers. Stephen St. Leger and James Mather is their name. they did this short called ‘Prey Alone’. They have come up with this great script for ‘Lost Squad’. The visual plans they have shown us for the movie is really unlike anything. You will see World War II in a way that you are not used to seeing it. It’s the hyper stylized, the way ‘300’, re-imagined. That’s what these guys can do with World War II.
Alter: Yeah, you’ve never seen World War like this.
Askarieh: Imagine a World War II movie with supernatural, hardcore action, that today’s video game generation is going to flock to see. That’s what we are doing with ‘The Lost Squad’.
What do you think of the whole video game genre coming to film? Is that a trend that’s happening or are studios concerned. ‘Doom’ failed.
Askarieh: I don’t look at things by what has failed. I think good movies make money and bad movies fail. I’m not saying that ‘Doom’ was a bad or good movie, I’m just making a general statement. I don’t see it as a trend. We didn’t see comic books being a trend. You live in the day and age that unless the picture has a built in audience, unless it fulfills the whole idea of going to the cinema, sitting there with 1000, or 500 strange people in bolted seats, and experiencing something, then you might as well not make the movie. There are so many more outlets for other movies to be shown like DVD, cable, video on demand, and the Internet. I think that cinema has now become the time or place to go see a movie that is action adventure, horror, romantic comedies, high concept, R rated comedy, and family entertainment. All of them have this communal experience common denominator. I think that video game movies provide you with source material that fulfills that function.
Alter: Studios want big brands. They want things with pre-existing fan bases that can have a nice fat opening weekend. Here’s the thing, whatever you are dealing with, whether it is a comic book, video game, novel, update of an old TV show, or a remake, the trick is to make something that is good. Unfortunately, in the past, there were some video game adaptations that weren’t good. I think that video games, like anything, have their own challenges. Sometimes it’s not smart, if they are going to make a first person shooter, there is no story there. I am of the opinion that you can make anything work, if you have the right talent involved. You can take the kernel of an idea and make it work. But, there are certain games that are just so palpable for movies, like ‘Hitman, and like ‘Kayne & Lynch’. There are other ones that you would have to work harder at, but certainly if you look at where the audience or young generation is going, playing games. ‘Lost Squad’ and ‘300’ are both based on comic books, neither on games, but the video game audience has visuals they expect. Quite frankly they demand that these days. That goes back to ‘The Matrix’, it was definitely channeling that and look how involved Andy and Larry [Wachowski] were in making a video game to tie into the second film. I think we are going into a new era. I think that following ‘Hitman’ you are now going to see, with us doing ‘Kayne & Lynch’, also ‘Max Payne’, and ‘Prince of Persia’, people are really making triple A video game films.
Askarieh: Not to mention ‘Spy Hunter’.
Here’s a movie that I would love to see come to film. ‘Call of Duty’.
Alter: Yeah, ‘Call of Duty’ is terrific. It’s gone from being World War II…
To Modern Warfare. That would be an awesome idea. Is there a video game out there that you want to see on screen, besides the ones you are already involved with?
Askarieh: There is a project that we are in final negotiations for the rights. I think once we announce it, sometime next year, people are going to flip. That’s all I’m going to say about that right now.
Going back to ‘Kayne & Lynch’, is Bruce Willis attached?
Askarieh: Honestly, there is no one attached. Danny and I are giant fans of Bruce Willis. For us, Bruce playing Kayne, would be an enormous honor. But no one is attached yet. It’s one of those films that we HOPE to go pre strike, and that’s the plan. Obviously there are a lot of details that need to be worked out. I believe that we will succeed in achieving that goal. No actor is attached, although we are huge fans of Bruce Willis.
Alter: Working with Bruce on ‘Kayne & Lynch’, or any movie, would be a dream come true for me.
And if he was on board? Which one would you like for him to play?
Askarieh: I think he would be Kayne.
Here’s one for you Dan. ‘Hack/Slash’. Is Megan Fox really involved?
Alter: You know, the Internet is an amazing thing. She’s a very interesting choice for it, and we like her potentially, but we’ve had no meetings with her. That is something that we would have to get further into pre-production and then see what happens.
What about ‘Spy Hunter’? Is that going next year?
Askarieh: The hope is for Paul Anderson to jump into it after he finishes ‘Death Race’ for Universal.
Alter: Tell who you have writing.
Askarieh: We have fantastic writers.
So Paul Anderson is not the only writer?
Askarieh: No, actually we have [Cyrus] Voris and [Ethan] Reiff writing, not now because of the strike but they are our writers. They did ‘Nottingham’ with Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe at Universal. They are fantastic writers. They run this show called ‘Sleeper Cell’ so they are very smart guys. They wrote the script for ‘Nottingham’, which is a cool take, based on the Sheriff of Nottingham, and the legend of Robin Hood. They are really smart guys. They are really doing a good job on ‘Spy Hunter’. I wish the strike would end as soon as possible so that everybody can get back to work.
HITMAN OPENS NOVEMBER 21ST
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