What Happened to Tom Hardy’s Splinter Cell Adaptation?

The long-anticipated Splinter Cell movie starring Tom Hardy, which was first announced way back in 2012, has officially been pronounced dead by its producer, Basil Iwanyk.

Tom Hardy, fresh off his iconic role as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, was set to portray Sam Fisher, the legendary spec ops agent from Ubisoft’s popular stealth game franchise. In 2014, Doug Liman, the director behind Edge of Tomorrow, was brought on board to helm the project, raising fans’ expectations even higher.

However, according to Iwanyk, the movie encountered significant challenges in two critical areas: scripting and budgeting. “That movie would have been awesome,” he told The Direct. “Just couldn’t get it right, script-wise, budget-wise. But it was going to be great. We had a million different versions of it.”

The prolonged development and eventual cancellation of the Splinter Cell movie highlight the complexities of adapting video games to the big screen. Despite the massive popularity of game franchises, translating their narrative and gameplay mechanics into compelling cinematic experiences remains a significant challenge. Ubisoft, in particular, has struggled with this transition. Its previous attempts, like the Assassin’s Creed film starring Michael Fassbender in 2016 and the Prince of Persia movie featuring Jake Gyllenhaal in 2010, were both considered commercial failures.

Still, Ubisoft remains committed to bringing its game worlds to the big screen. Multiple reports indicate that the company has several video game adaptations in various stages of development. These include:

• A “The Division” movie for Netflix
• A “Beyond Good and Evil” movie
• A “Just Dance” movie
• A “Watch Dogs” movie
• “Assassin’s Creed” live-action and animated series
• A “Far Cry” animated series

Moreover, Ubisoft revealed in 2021 that Ubisoft Toronto is developing a remake of the original Splinter Cell, but there has been no further news since then.

Let’s hope these game adaptations and the remake see the daylight, as Ubisoft has been going through tough times recently, including game delays, share downfall, management crises, employee strikes, and much more.

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