Back in early October we broke the news that director Xavier Gens had been bounced from his adaptation of Hit Man by the powers that be at Fox and editor Nicholas De Toth brought in to supervise a kindler, gentler re-cut of the film - the same role he filled on Live Free Or Die Hard. Fox's PR department, not surprisingly, got the wheels a spinnin' shortly thereafter, going into full-on deny-deny-deny mode, claiming that our story was full of lies, Gens was still in charge, and that De Toth was nothing more than a consultant. When some sites - this one among them - pointed out the obvious inconsistencies in their release on the matter, they followed that one up with a further release restating their position while also making some not-so-veiled jabs about trusting what you read on the internet, points picked up by Variety among other places, which was lovely in a shoot-the-messenger sort of way.
Well, a big whoopsy here if you're with Fox PR. Today the lads at CHUD posted parts of an interview with Hit Man star Timothy Olyphant in which he confirms that reshoots have been underway with someone other than Gens directing and while Olyphant doesn't call the man by name the hand at the helm of the process has been De Toth. How much is being reshot? According to Olyphant there are some touch ups and inserts - which is fairly standard stuff - plus one entirely new action sequence and one sequence which was altered and added to. Touch ups and insert shots are no big deal and are frequently the domain of someone other than the primary director even during principal photography, but an entire new sequence is another matter altogether. As to the eventual rating Olyphant offers the opinion that they shot so much violent material that cutting it all would leave the film at about a forty five minute run time but who knows what'll be left once this process is all wrapped up.
If the film was completed before Fox stepped in to screw it up, what's to stop EuropaCorp from using the original cut instead of the Fox cut for other territories - or at least France? They've done it before, though this seems like it might be a more drastic reworking as opposed to, say, TRANSPORTER 2 getting its blood and nipples digitally erased.
Garth: I get where you're coming from - and who knows if what Gens turned in was any good - but Gens himself has said pretty clearly to press at Sitges that he has no more involvement and expects that his cut will never, ever be allowed to surface. And while he may have been around while the reshoots were happening he was off continent for about a month while the re-edits and things were begun and he has not been consulted on any of it.
As to the CHUD article stating De Toth directed the reshoots I'm not sure if I misread or if they've since changed it, but you're correct, the article no longer says that and I'll change ours to reflect that. But it is very definitely De Toth currently calling the shots.
Thanks for the clarification, Todd. I wasn't aware of a lot of the goings on and, admittedly, haven't exactly been following it since the announcement that De Toth was brought onboard.