Kotaku: 20th century fox

Second Hitman Movie Has A Writer

Mike Fahey — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:20:00 MDT

Love it or hate it, the movie adaptation of Eidos' Hitman series made 20th Century Fox a great deal of money, and now they've hired screenwriter Kyle Ward to make them some more.

The news of Ward's hiring comes by way of IESB, who confirmed with 20th Century Fox that the young writer had been tapped to deliver a treatment for the second Hitman film. No stranger to video game films, Kyle also penned the screenplay for Kane & Lynch, another Eidos property currently undergoing the movie treatment.

Of course, movies get treatments all the time, so this is in no way confirmation that the movie is indeed coming, but seeing as the original took in $100 million at the box office and tons more in DVD sales, it's a safe bet that 20th Century Fox will do everything in their power to make it happen. Who knows? Maybe this time they'll go with a slightly more appropriate actor.

ESB Exclusive: Fox Hires a Writer for Hitman 2! [IESB.net]

Settlement Makes GTA Movie Impossible

Owen Good — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:00:00 MDT

Back in February we spotted a rumor that a GTA movie starring Eminem almost happened. It was knocked down the same day by Rockstar's Dan Houser, who said "we never entertained proceeding with the project." Maybe the story pitch was crap, but even if it wasn't, now we know at least one reason why.

LA Weekly's Nikkie FInke reports on her blog that a settlement prohibits Rockstar from making a movie based on Grand Theft Auto, which is the same name as a 1977 film whose rights are owned by Fox. The settlement also prohibits Fox from making any video game based on that movie. I've never seen it, but considering all the crappy adaptations done out there, obviously this settlement was more about protecting Fox's copyrights than Rockstar's.

Interestingly, the Grand Theft Auto film in question got an updated box right around the time the original GTA craze hit (above), and you can see the similarities in the typefaces. Not sure if this was part [or provocation] of the settlement or not.

All About the Grand Theft Auto Movie [Nikkie FInke's Deadline Hollywood Daily, via Shacknews]

Fox Goes into Halo Merchandising

Kim Phu — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 08:40:00 MDT

20th Century Fox Licensing and Merchandising has announced a partnership with Microsoft where they will be the licensing agent for the Halo franchise:

Fox Licensing will enter the strategic partnership with Microsoft — which has generated more than $700 million in sales from the "Halo" franchise, with more than 14.5 million video games sold — to expand the brand's licensing and merchandise program, retail distribution and worldwide presence with its target demographic of males ages 17-34.

Last we heard about a joint venture between the two companies, Fox was eating the cost of the (un)making of the Halo movie. Now they are more than happy to expand the Halo property into "new products, retail markets and territories". Does this mean that there's still a chance in icy hell for the movie to be produced or does it just mean we'll be seeing Halo-themed coffee mugs and gummy candies in the future? Kim Phu

Fox aura surrounds Microsoft's top-selling 'Halo' [The Hollywood Reporter via My Arcade Planet]