Rupert Friend Will Replace Paul Walker as Fox's AGENT 47
Thu, January 9, 2014 
Months and months ago, late star Paul Walker was cast as the nameless Agent 47 in the upcoming sequel/reboot to 2007's (wow) HITMAN film which starred Timothy Olyphant as the lead.
Since Walker's unfortunate, Variety reports that Homeland star Rupert Friend will take over the role.
Though 20th Century Fox is handling distribution, Fox International and Square Enix were the driving forces in getting the film up and running. Walker’s commitment was a major part of the film getting a greenlight, and after the actor died it looked as if this film would not be able to move forward, since the production start date was set for February and there was no major star involved.
The film, AGENT 47, is being directed by Aleksander Back off of a script by Skip Woods (A Good Day to Die Hard, Swordfish) and Michael Finch (Predators) and based off of the best-selling Square Enix video-game franchise which follows a nameless clone who works for "The Agency", recognizable only by a bar code on the back of his head.
The games rely on disguise and theatricality as the player navigates through open maps to complete an assassination.
Friend certainly looks the part, a lot more than Walker did, and I loved Walker; but always felt him as Agent 47 was strange. Friend is a diabolical badass on Showtime's Homeland and could definitely bring the menacing cold of Agent 47 to screen perfectly.
The first film, HITMAN, made $92 million world-wide.
Reader Comments (1)
Diabolical? Harsh!