Exclusive: Timothy Olyphant talks Hitman

Yesterday, Total Film had the chance to sit down with Timothy Olyphant in LA, who was doing the rounds to promote Die Hard 4.0, in which he plays a cyber-vigilante bent on crippling America’s government and waging a campaign against its people using its own technology.

We took the opportunity to grill him about another upcoming project, the adaptation of blood thirsty console game Hitman, which he’s about to head to Europe to shoot. And stab and… Well, you get the picture.

“We’re supposed to start on the 27 March in Bulgaria. It’s a physical role, much more so than I got to do in Die Hard. It’s not so much fighting as just killing. He kills people in a lot of interesting ways… I shoot people. I even blow one up.”

Olyphant has had to get into a serious training regime to prepare: “As the kids on the Internet will tell you, the guy in the game is really buffed and I am… not. So I have been getting to the gym to be ready so hopefully I won’t let anyone down.”

He admits that he has some reservations about adopting the iconic, shaved noggin look of the main character, Agent 47, but is going for it. “That’s part of the job. Everybody cringes when I tell them, but I’m trying to remain positive. My head will be shaved, but I’ll be all the way in Bulgaria. So really, it’s one of those ‘if a tree falls in the forest situations…’ No one is gonna notice. I hope. Who knows… it might be a good look for me!”

There’ll be more from Olyphant on Die Hard 4.0 in an upcoming issue of Total Film.