Timothy Olyphant
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"Hitman" Starts Production

Principal photography began on March 27 on 20th Century Fox and EuropaCorp's action thriller Hitman directed by Xavier Gens (Frontières). Timothy Olyphant ("Deadwood"; Live Free Or Die Hard) stars in the title role with co-stars including Dougray Scott (Mission: Impossible II; "Desperate Housewives"), Olga Kurylenko (Paris je t'aime), Robert Knepper ("Prison Break"), Ulrich Thomsen (Festen) and Michael Offei (Casino Royale). The screenplay was adapted by Skip Woods (Swordfish) from the hugely successful video game franchise.

EuropaCorp's Pierre-Ange LePogam is producing for 20th Century Fox with the main unit shooting in and around the Bulgarian capital of Sofia for a total of 12 weeks. A second unit will shoot in locations including South Africa, Istanbul, St. Petersburg and London.

Agent 47 (Olyphant) has been educated to become a professional assassin for hire, whose most powerful weapons are his nerve and a resolute pride in his work. 47 is both the last two digits of the barcode tattooed on the nape of his neck, and his only name.

The hunter becomes the hunted when 47 gets caught up in a political takeover. Both Interpol and the Russian military chase the Hitman across Eastern Europe as he tries to find out who set him up and why they're trying to take him out of the game. But the greatest threat to 47's survival may be the stirrings of his conscience and the unfamiliar emotions aroused in him by a beautiful, damaged girl...

Director Xavier Gens cut his teeth as a trainee AD on a variety of big-budget films (Maximum Risk, Ronin, Le Bossu) and directed some 40 music videos as well as an award-winning short before making his impressive feature debut with EuropaCorp's Frontières (Borders). Hitman's behind-the-scenes team includes Frontières' cinematographer, Laurent Barès.

The film will be released in France through EuropaCorp Distribution and in the rest of the world through 20th Century Fox. 20th Century Fox is a unit of Fox Filmed Entertainment, a segment of the Fox Entertainment Group.