The Guardians of the Galaxy director tried to make a Hitman movie but clashed with producers over rating

What would a Hitman movie from the director of Guardians of the Galaxy have looked like? We may never know, but at least we know one thing: it wouldn’t have shied away from the series’ violence. James Gunn revealed on Twitter that he attempted to direct a film adaptation a few years ago, but ended up clashing with producers over the rating:

Frankly, this is a bizarre stance for the producers to take - especially considering the two Hitman films that currently exist are both rated R. How could anyone make a successful Hitman movie with a PG-13 rating? It’s a franchise based entirely on contract killings (not exactly family-friendly material), and fans who paid to see it wouldn’t want to watch a watered down version of the violence they know from the games. That kind of thinking is classic Hollywood executive nonsense: attempting to shave off the edges to pull in a larger audience, and in the process diluting the aspects that made the story interesting in the first place and alienating its pre-existing fan base.

When Gunn says “a few years ago,” he almost certainly means before the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, because I know he was already at work writing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 during the original film’s opening weekend. This was likely after 2007’s R-rated Hitman movie (starring Timothy Olyphant) came out and made $99 million worldwide. The producers must not have been thrilled with that number, and were considering the possibility of PG-13 in an attempt to pull in some more cash. They didn’t go with Gunn’s vision, but they ultimately decided to make another R-rated movie anyway with 2015’s Hitman: Agent 47. That film actually did worse at the box office than the original: it only made $82 million worldwide.

Consider Gunn’s missed connection another of the many “what could have been” stories floating around Hollywood.

Image: 20th Century Fox

Ben Pearson
Ben is an entertainment journalist who has written about movies online for nearly a decade. He loves the Fast & Furious franchise, prefers Indiana Jones to Star Wars, and will defend the ending of Lost until his dying day. He shook Bill Murray's hand once (so he's got that going for him, which is nice). Ben lives in Los Angeles with his wife.
Latest in Action Movies
Fantastic Four: 1234 #2 cover excerpt
Sue Storm and Namor are officially both in Avengers: Doomsday, and fans are wondering if Reed Richards has something to worry about
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers with the rest of the gang during the superhero movie, The Avengers.
The OG Fox X-Men are back, with Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and more joining the cast of Avengers: Doomsday alongside a whole new Avengers team to take on Robert Downey Jr's Doctor Doom
Robert Downey Jr. sitting in a chair at the end of a long line of chairs
Everything announced during Marvel's Avengers: Doomsday cast reveal live stream
The cast of Suicide Squad (2016)
David Ayer admits James Gunn has good reason not to release his cut of Suicide Squad, but he remains hopeful it'll happen
The Fantastic Four: First Steps cast assemble
Fantastic Four star says the Marvel movie "will go down in history" for rejuvenating the MCU, "in the same way the Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther hit"
Ben Affleck in Air
Ben Affleck isn't in The Odyssey, but he plans to visit the set anyway to watch Christopher Nolan work: "He's one of the greatest filmmaking architects to ever live"
Latest in News
Pillars of Eternity
10 years later, in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 and Avowed world, Obsidian is giving its own throwback CRPG Pillars of Eternity a turn-based combat mode
Destiny 2 Lightfall
When Destiny 2 "weekly active users dropped lower and faster than we'd seen since 2018," Bungie assembled an A-Team to put out some fires: "We needed to do something"
Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo looking at a giant key which is also a clue
Netflix is rebooting Scooby-Doo as a live-action series from the producer of Supergirl and The Flash centered around a "supernatural murder" at a summer camp
Astro Bot
Astro Bot went through 23 pitch iterations before its director promised PlayStation "happy gameplay" and "overflowing charm," though it did once end with robot decapitation that made "some people really upset"
Tomb Raider
5 years after Avengers, 2 years after its last layoffs, and who knows how long before Perfect Dark and Tomb Raider return, Crystal Dynamics announces another round of layoffs
AI Limit
"AI is not as effective as it might appear": Dev of AI-focused Soulslike RPG says they didn't use any AI-generated content and it can't match "genuine creativity"