Tag: xavier gens

Xavier Gens Headed for THE FALLOUT

xavier gens

While it isn’t a surprise to hear how I feel about some of the issues that befell Xavier Gens’ first endeavor into American cinema (HITMAN), I haven’t really spoken on the director himself.   There was much potential in HITMAN, and it certainly gave us a handful of inspired shots, but, as a whole, it didn’t even feel like a master editor could have saved the film from heading towards the trainwreck it eventually caused.   FRONTIERE(S) was also a film with much potential that fell short.   Though it didn’t fall off the cliff as hard as HITMAN, the reasoning being the studio involved in the two projects, it still wasn’t a superb, horror film, and it was clearly at the bottom of the list of the wave of French horror films that hit our shores a year or two back.

So, needless to say, it doesn’t just get me all warm and fuzzy to hear Gens is set to direct again.   According to Screen Daily,   he has signed to direct THE FALLOUT, a sci-fi thriller that is described as containing elements of ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 and LORD OF THE FLIES.

Says Ross Dinerstein, one of the producers on the film:

Xavier’s vision for this film is extraordinary. He brings a visual edge to this fascinating exploration of the human condition.

Producer Darryn Welch has this to add:

With a collective of ‘End of the World’ movies hitting the theatres presently, this film will undoubtedly stand out like a ravenous Pit bull in a school playground… brace yourselves cause this film has a serious bite to it!

The film was picked up by ContentFilm International (CFI) for worldwide distribution.   Principal photography is set to begin in February in Europe.

Good Ol’ Fox Planning ‘Hitman’ Sequel

hitman

It has been well-documented my disdain for much of what is coming out of 20th Century Fox’s camp lately.   Particularly their action department, and the massive drop off when it comes to the quality of 20th Century Fox Action 10-20 years ago vs. 20th Century Fox action in the past decade, has caused me a certain amount of agitation.

It isn’t that ideas aren’t coming their way.   ‘Hitman’ and ‘Babylon A.D.’ could have and probably should have been memorable actioners that rivaled anything the studio put out pre-‘Daredevil’.   Instead of making R-rated action movies for the millions of adults out there who still like to go to movies, they chopped these movies all to hell, (thanks to the vicious editor’s knife of one Nicolas De Toth) and attempted to make them more accessible for all ages.   Never mind that ‘Hitman’ got released with an R rating, anyway.   It’s like they tried to get it down to PG-13, failed, and said, “Screw it.   Let’s just release this piece of crap and make whatever bank we can off it.”

I thought it meant something when ‘Hitman’ pulled in less than $40 million domestic.   Granted, it made nearly $100 worldwide against a $24 million budget, but those local numbers sure weren’t anything to break open the Cristal over.

Evidently the execs over at Fox are thinking differently.   They have hired a writer to begin work on a sequel to the 2007 “hit”.   That writer is Kyle Ward, who has already written the screenplay for the Platinum Dunes thriller ‘Fiasco Heights’ and the Bruce Willis-starring, video game adaptation ‘Kane & Lynch.’

This raises a rather interesting question.   What poor, up-and-coming director are they going to hire to shoot this thing?   What filmmaker is going to have ‘Hitman 2’ taken away from him in the 11th hour only to have Fox’s hand-picked editors tear his vision all to hell?   It sure won’t be Xavier Gens, who directed the first ‘Hitman.’   The feeling is that bridges were burnt on both sides in the dealings Gens had with Fox on that film.   Neither party is going to want to deal with the other any time soon.

It will also be interesting to see if Timothy Olyphant returns to the role of Agent 47.   The first film was designed, it seemed, to be his breakout performance that would launch him towards A-list stardom.   It didn’t happen, and, two years later, he’s starring in the remake of ‘The Crazies’ for Overture.   He might be jumping at the chance to make a second go at the ‘Hitman’ franchise, but you never can tell.   Fox may even want a different face in the lead role, and this new film may, eventually, turn out to be a sort of relaunch of the potential series.

So, yes, ‘Hitman 2’ is happening.   20th Century Fox is fully behind it, and a screenwriter has been hired to pump out a first draft.   We’ll all have to sit back and see what happens with this project between now and the film’s eventual release.

Source: IESB