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Video game adaptations remain one of the hottest things in Hollywood right now, but there is at least one long-gestating project that won’t see the light of day. New Regency and Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell film is officially dead, according to the would-be film’s producer, Basil Iwanyk. The film would have been based on the popular stealth video game franchise of the same name and was slated to star Tom Hardy in yet another big action role. But by all indications, this isn’t coming to fruition.
Iwanyk shared the news in an interview with The Direct, where said that the details of the Splinter Cell film simply never panned out. “That movie would have been awesome … [we] just couldn’t get it right, script-wise, budget-wise. But it was going to be great,” Iwanyk said. “We had a million different versions of it, but it was going to be hardcore and awesome. That’s one of the ones that got away, which is really sad.”
The video game series, officially titled Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, remains one of the most popular stealth gaming franchises of all time. The film would have starred Hardy as the protagonist of the games, Sam Fisher, an NSA agent who works as part of the black-ops “Third Echelon” division. Fisher is sent around the world to covertly investigate global affairs, often donning his signature night goggles and stealthy spy gear; while the plot of the film has never been revealed, prior installments of the game had Fisher stopping bioweapons, hunting for missing CIA operatives in other countries, and more.
“Splinter Cell’ Has Been in the Works for Years
The news of Splinter Cell’s demise marks the end of a long road. A Splinter Cell film was originally announced back in 2004, just two years after the first game came out. Development bounced to different studios before New Regency landed the rights; Hardy was brought aboard in 2012, with Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman set to helm the film.
There always seemed to be optimism about the film, with Iwanyk telling Collider in 2017, “We’ve got a script. It’s a little long, but it’s the best script we’ve had. Now that I’m back from Mexico City, we’re going in there to figure out how to cut some pages and give it to [Tom] Hardy. This draft kind of addressed Tom’s notes. We’re going to give it to Hardy in the next couple of weeks and hopefully try to get it done this year.”
Despite the disappointing news, there is one positive for fans on the horizon: an animated series, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, has been developed by Netflix. It will star Liev Schrieber as Sam Fisher and comes from Derek Kolstad, the writer of John Wick. No release window has been announced yet; stay tuned to Collider for more information.
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