NEWS - Tuesday, February 4, 2003
Hitman 3 & Hitman: The Movie in the Works
Danish Hitman takes aim at Hollywood The Danish computer game Hitman looks to be the next hit game to get the Hollywood treatment. The game's international distributor EIDOS is currently negotiating with unnamed Hollywood studios - although it has an existing relationship with Paramount for the Tomb Raider franchise. The Danish developers at IO Interactive have so far produced two games based on the Hitman character, and both have been international hits. Hitman - Codename 47 and Hitman 2 - Silent Assassin sold 600,000 and 1.8 million copies respectively. The company went from a modest DKR123.000 profit in 2001 to a DKR40m last year. "It is not a question of whether or not we are going to Hollywood, only of when," IO Interactive's financial director Morten Borum told local media. IO Interactive is currently developing Hitman 3, set for a spring 2004 release, but it is too soon to say when the film might be ready and if its release will coincide with the new game. "We are very selective with who we are talking to in regards to the film," Borum continues. "If the film is great it will be a great marketing tool for our game. But we are not talking about Dogme here. We are competing in the league of Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings." The third edition of the game has a $43.3m (DKR300m) budget. IO Interactive was founded in 1998 by five Danish computer programmers, who had worked in the US. They struck up a relationship with Egmont-owned major Nordisk Film, which today holds a stake of the company.Source: http://www.screendaily.com
