A little over a year ago, Eidos and 20th Century Fox joined forces in the true Hollywood spirit and thought of bringing yet another popular video game to the big screen. The 'Hitman' franchise has been a very popular one all these years, so the decision of turning it into a film was definitely an applauded one.

However, to the fans' biggest disappointment, it turned out that it was just one of those ideas that needs years and years to gestate before becoming a concrete thing. At first, the announcement said that Vin Diesel would not only play the main part (Agent 47) on the big screen, but that he would also executive produce the film (which would eventually turn into a successful and productive franchise) and lend his voice for another installment of the video game.

There was also a producer attached to the project, Daniel Alter, and a writer, Skip Woods ('Swordfish'). After more than a year during which not much was heard, several stories appeared on the Internet saying that things were drastically changed in the last hour. Basically, what they said was the Vin Diesel was axed and replaced with Timothy Olyphant ('Girl Next Door', 'Deadwood', 'Live Free or Die Hard').

Upset by the rumor that the studio nixed him without consulting him beforehand, Vin Diesel had his spokesperson give a statement to set the record straight. He told news agency TMZ that he was not 'replaced' in the movie, because he had already 'opted out' of it a long time ago, even before Olyphant's name became attached to the project.

The reason for which the 'The Fast and the Furious' star chose to abandon the project, he explains, is that he struck a better deal with FOX for 'Babylon A.D', a big-budget movie that required him to move to Prague for a while, thus making work on 'Hitman' virtually impossible.

So, with a brand new leading man (already known for being a good actor) and a director internationally known for his action movies, Luc Besson, 'Hitman' is finally getting a head start. The anticipation is huge but it's a long way to go until fall of 2008, so fans will just have to be patient until then.