Way back in 2017, Fox 21 and Hulu announced that John Wick creator Derek Kolstad had been tapped to write the pilot for a Hitman TV series based on the bestselling video game.
There have already been two Hitman movies, one starring Timothy Olyphant, the other starring Rupert Friend, and both featuring the ever-deadly Agent 47 as traditionally depicted -- bald. However, the Hitman series that Kolstad has been planning will introduce the mysterious character with a full head of hair, only discovering his own barcode at the end of the pilot. Blasphemy, you say? Hardly! Allow Kolstad to explain.
"I wrote Episode 1 and 2, and what was great is they let me come in [and] introduce a character like that to our post-modern world. And I did it very much like The Third Man meets Three Days in the Condor. You're introduced to a guy who's very much the hitman we know from the games, but he's got a full head of hair, and he's independent. He has a handler, he's got a life, he's very much that early '80s, late '70s assassin we read about in the books, right? But at a certain point, he gets a gig, and that gig unveils the reality that no choice he's ever made has been his own. And of course, the show ends with him at a mirror, finding hidden under his skin, the barcode. So suddenly it becomes a mystery of 'who am I, really?' [Jason] Bourne did that excellently. This is more of, 'what is true in regards to the people in my life? What has been manufactured, what are thoughts, etc.' It's the nature versus nurture of it all," said Kolstad.
Just based on that soundbite alone, I can tell that Kolstad is good in a room, and he's also smart enough to recognize that viewers will not tune in week in and week out, season after season, to watch an emotionally blank hitman. The character needs to have some depth to him.
"To your point, we get into the head of the character. In the games, there's not much of a character there. But who is this guy really, and why do you root for him? And so we got to give a moral compass. It's a tough sell, even with The Continental and John Wick, man. So your main character is a hitman. Why do I give a shit? And so we have to come in and hard-sell [that] it's a Western, man. Who do you root for? You root for the gray hat. He's the ultimate gray hat."
Kolstad is an executive producer on the Hitman series, but even he is unclear when it'll go before cameras.
"The gestation period for TV is forever, just like it is for movies, and then all of a sudden it awakens. But it's over with Fox and I love everyone over there, so we'll see. I don't know if it's asleep, or slumbering, or about to awaken, but we talk about it at least once a month going, 'Can we do something with that now?'"
One reason that Hitman may be in a holding pattern is that the series is without a showrunner, as Kolstad has resisted the temptation thus far.
"Well, here's the thing... I've got a lot going on, because I love to write. And I know a showrunner is what a writer should really want to be, because you get all the money and all the power, if you want to take it. But the reality is, I want to just write. So on these things, I want to partner up with a showrunner, and [to use] an analogy from a sport I don't necessarily watch, I want to help build the car, staff the pit, hand the keys over to the driver and just be there to refuel and take care of the car. I want to do that as much as I can because the joy is the writing for me. Being on set is cool, but then [after] about five minutes you're like, 'meh.' I'm blessed alone in a cave [where I can] type," said Kolstad, who elaborated on his decision to focus on screenwriting.
I find his perspective rather refreshing since most people do take the money and the power and become showrunners even though many of them are used to living solitary lives and aren't always the best fit to manage dozens if not hundreds of other people.
"The thing about being a showrunner is, that's your life for possibly up to seven years. Terry Matalas is a buddy of mine. He did 12 Monkeys and now he's on Picard, and it's a different beast. It's a completely different beast. Just like as much as I love comedies, I'm not going to write a comedy. I will write an action-comedy, I will write something with humor. But comedy, man? Massive respect for those who do it well. And the same goes for me and [being] a showrunner. A showrunner is... it's in their DNA. They love getting a call at 2 o'clock in the morning that we've got three scenes left to shoot, the set is on fire, and the actor has become a werewolf. And they're like, 'Cool. I'll be there in a second.' And me? I'm like, 'What show is this?'
That's a screenwriter who knows his strengths and weaknesses and trusts his own instincts. You can't ask much more of a writer, even though Kolstad has most of Hollywood lining up for his services, from Marvel to Netflix. In fact, you can read more about his animated Splinter Cell series below.