James Gunn has had a very solid run over the past decade, highlighted by the hit Guardians of the Galaxy movies, which he co-wrote and directed. Recently on Twitter he revealed that the first GotG was this close to not happening as it did, because Gunn wanted to do a Hitman movie instead.
“Weeks before I got Guardians I pitched a Hitman movie,” Gunn tweeted. “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!”
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/0JYQGBsuGYSeptember 6, 2022
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I liked Guardians of the Galaxy (although to be honest I’m 90% of the way to a ‘thumbs up’ with pretty much anything Dave Bautista’s in) but I think a Hitman movie written and directed by Gunn could be a lot of fun. Sure, the previous Hitman flicks starring Timothy Olyphant and that other guy have not been good, but that’s not necessarily Hitman’s fault. They’re bog-standard action flicks, generic and uninteresting in all aspects except the videogame connection.
The success of the Hitman reboot trilogy has demonstrated that the real secret is to embrace the essentially absurdity of a large, scowling bald man with a barcode tattooed on his head moving like an invisible predator through large crowds and elite security forces. I mean, come on.
That’s something that Gunn does well: Mixing action, and even pathos, with the acknowledgement that all of this is kind of silly, but that’s alright because it’s a lot of fun, too. We were probably lucky to get Guardians of the Galaxy instead of a longshot flier on Agent 47, but I can’t help but hope that with all these hits now under his belt, Gunn will take another run at a Hitman film someday.