Why James Gunn Is Glad He Didn't Get To Make A Hitman Movie

James Gunn almost got to make a "Hitman" movie, but is glad that he didn't. Gunn, the writer and director of "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "The Suicide Squad" was asked on Twitter if there is any video game adaptations he would be interested in tackling as a movie or television series. Gunn responded "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!"

So it seems that although Gunn wanted to make "Hitman," if he had ended up on the project he never would have worked on all three "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies. This isn't the first time Gunn has talked about what could have been with the "Hitman" project. In a now deleted Tweet from 2017 (via IGN) Gunn said that another issue he had with getting the "Hitman" movie made was that the producers didn't want to make an R-rated film. As pointed out in the IGN article, both the 2007 "Hitman" movie and the 2015 "Hitman: Agent 47" movie released with an R-rating. Fans were excited about the prospect of Gunn tackling a "Hitman" film or another video game franchise.

One of the first questions Gunn got after revealing the "Hitman" movie that was almost made was which game in the franchise is his favorite. The person asking the question said theirs was "Hitman: Blood Money" and Gunn agreed, saying that was probably his favorite too. Another commenter said that they would have loved to see Gunn's take on the world of "Hitman" and how he would have tackled its wacky world that everyone in the game takes completely seriously.

Another person asked Gunn if it was possible he would ever get another chance to make a "Hitman" movie, and Gunn made it clear that it is "not in the cards." A fan joked that in Gunn's version of "Hitman" Agent 47 would have been played by Michael Rooker, who has appeared in many of Gunn's films.

In response to the original question about video game adaptations, one developer chimed in. Michael Gamble, the project director on the next "Mass Effect" game who also worked on the previous titles, responded to Gunn's tweet with a waving emoji, perhaps suggesting interest in Gunn adapting "Mass Effect." Obviously, someone tweeting an emoji is nowhere close to being confirmation of a project, nor is it a confirmation that it has even been pitched to Gunn, but Amazon is reportedly adapting the series into a television series, so the future is anyone's guess.