We square off with the Hitman.
The name Timothy Olyphant probably doesn’t ring a bell when I say it, unless maybe you are one of the select group that followed HBO’s excellent western series, Deadwood, on which Olyphant portrayed town Sheriff Seth Bullock.
But even if you don’t know that name, you likely know the face. The drug dealer in Go, the pornographer in The Girl Next Door and the best Die Hard villain since Alan Rickman in this past summer’s Live Free or Die Hard. Starting to ring a bell?
Thus far, Olyphant has primarily made his name on characters of the sleazy or villainous variety. Something about his trademark stare through the top of his lids seems to indicate “maybe you shouldn’t trust this guy.”
Fox is attempting to change all that by casting Olyphant as the hero (of sorts) in the new adaptation of the popular Hitman game series, although considering he’s still a killer (albeit a professional one) he hasn’t exactly made the full-on transition to wholesomeness.
As Hitman nears its November 21st release, early buzz on the movie has been a bit iffy. There were last minute re-shoots and director Xavier Gens was reportedly removed from the editing process, substituted by “fixer” editor Nicolas De Toth – rumored to be tasked with toning down the over-the-top violence. Of course, this all comes from the world of fanboy journalism, admittedly not always the most reliable source of concrete news.
Ironically, most of the guilty parties of such rumor spreading are likely present in the room for this online interview with Olyphant.
He enters the room of press with his trademark cheshire cat grin. He’s aware of the questions coming, but impressively doesn’t duck them. His hair is still very short, only partially grown back from the recent re-shoots, which is where our conversation begins. “We did this kick-ass little action sequence,” Olyphant says. “A couple little touch-ups and stuff, and little bits and little inserts. It’s lovely to have that luxury. And then we had this action sequence that we sort of added.”
So did Xavier direct the re-shoots? “He is involved, he’s very involved,” Olyphant says carefully. “I saw him when I was there. He did not direct the re-shoots, but I don’t know what Fox’s position is on that – maybe he did direct the re-shoots?” (Laughs)
“But, yeah… I heard that talk that he was fired and I kept saying I was trying to get that guy fired for months. They finally fired him? F***! I was saying forever, ‘He doesn’t speak English, doesn’t anyone see that as a problem?’ Olyphant jokes.
Hitman is a violent video game and Olyphant maintains that the movie still contains the requisite level of blood and gore. “I have no information where that supports [cutting the violence] at all… There were never any conversations with any of the executives here or the producers in France or with Xavier that was about fear of being too violent… There’s no way it’s not a violent film… We’d have a 45-minute film… We shot a very violent film… If there’s any truth to that rumor at all…there’s always a conversation about what you’re trying to elicit in an audience, the feelings. There’s a difference in the violence in the James Bond films… There’s the violence in a Quentin Tarantino film as opposed to the violence in a horror film or something that’s designed to make you uncomfortable. I think if there was a conversation simply about that - finding the right tone – not about this idea of toning it down or making it less than it already is.”
“I thought what we were making was reminiscent of, in terms of specific films, old John Woo films… South Korea has a certain elegance to the film, but the violence was there as well. It wasn’t comical; we weren’t making something that felt like, ‘50 guys just died, I hardly noticed.’
“As the movie changed, Xavier and I had a lot of conversations about the type of violence and how it changes throughout the film as the character changes. Xavier was a very thoughtful guy, a very smart guy; he really is the main reason I was enthusiastic about this project. It’s not lost on me, the fact that Fox offered me a project like this, and it’s quite an opportunity and quite flattering. I’ve never done anything like this before, and had this type of responsibility, and that’s all well and good. But Xavier, from the moment we met, his enthusiasm for the material – he was aiming high… I thought that was impressive.”
Moving away from the “controversy,” Olyphant gives some back story on his character, Agent 47: “He’s based on this video game character; he’s essentially this guy who was born and bread for the purpose of killing. The story is essentially about this guy; he was hired to do this job and he does it, seemingly as well as he’s done any other. And then he’s told by the people he works for there was a witness and he’s got to clean that up. Something’s not right when he sees her – it’s a woman played by Olga Kurylenko, who’s just fantastic. She did a really lovely job - and there appears to be no recognition when she sees him, which obviously means something’s not right. And the next thing we know is someone is trying to kill me; the guy who I thought I killed is on television and nothing makes sense anymore. This guy’s world is being turned upside down.”
Aside from a few scenes in Die Hard, Olyphant hasn’t had much experience shooting high intensity action sequences. Hitman definitely provided a crash course in the genre. “It was great, I really enjoyed it; it was challenging… Xavier was a very smart guy and it was very rewarding to be engaging with him creatively – fighting the fight, if you will, day after day. How can we make this? Is there a way to make this scene smarter? Is there a way to make this scene more? How much of a character film can we make given the source material? Can we get to the heart of something here?”
Obviously, Fox envisions Hitman as a potential franchise candidate, but box office and home video will ultimately determine where the series goes from here. Olyphant admits he is signed for sequels, but prefers to focus on the present for now. “I don’t know what the studio’s [take is] – you’d have to ask them. These days, it seems like everything is intended to be [a sequel]. If it’s successful, there’s going to be another one. It’s hard to find a movie these days that doesn’t have a franchise potential. Someone was telling me The Game Plan [will have a] sequel; I was like, ‘Really? It’s a franchise? I didn’t see that.’ But it did great, so why the f*** not.”