Also part of 20th Century Fox’s Comic-Con panel was Hitman: Agent 47 , the reboot of the videogame actioner.
This time out, Rupert Friend stars as the numerically monikered, genetically altered assassin for hire. Friend wasn’t present in Hall H as he was shooting Homeland in South Africa, but he introduced the exclusive trailer footage via a video message.
The trailer opens with a remixed version of ‘Voodoo Child’, with Friend’s antihero handcuffed to the table in an interrogation room. The back of his head (which is stubbly, as opposed to clean-shaven) bears the trademark barcode tattoo, albeit in a slightly redesigned form. Asked for his name, he answers, “47.” His interrogator retorts, “That’s not a name!” “No, but it is mine…”
The action kicks off when 47 shows off his Bourne-esque skills. Jumping up from his seat, he pulls his handcuff-chain into the line of fire of a rifle that’s been mounted on the table and pointed at him. All in slow-motion, naturally.
Also spotted in the trailer is 47 walking through a security gate metal detector, and drawing back his coat to reveal that he’s armed to the hilt with various guns, Matrix -style. A line of dialogue acts as the voiceover, intoning: “He’s an engineered human being: stronger, faster, more intelligent than normal people.”
There’s plenty of slo-mo gunplay, plus a helicopters blades smashing into the side of a skyscraper, as well as the impressive sight of 47’s car being pinned by several grappling wires, which the SWAT team then slide down. It all looked very slick and glossy, with the film’s Berlin and Budapest locations also shown off.
Zachary Quinto plays John Smith, and during his panel, he quipped, “The character’s more complicated than the name… I tend to respond to characters that have more going on than meets the eye.”
The Star Trek actor was keen to big up Agent 47 ’s selling points too. “The scale and the scope and the style of this film is all really dynamic and exciting, but it’s rooted in the relationships between these characters.”
Hitman: Agent 47 is set to open in the UK on 20 March 2015.
