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Relax, the Splinter Cell movie is still on the cards and Tom Hardy is still tipped to star

May 16th, 2016 by Marc Comments

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Video game adaptations have not translated into box office gold in Hollywood quite like comic books, and believe us, the guys at Squareeyed.tv have watched them all!

It’s something of a cursed genre, with several high-profile games being the subject of critically derided films (remember The Prince of Persia?). The fundamental immersion and interactivity in a game is difficulty to replicate when the consumer can’t influence or control the world in front of them. For filmmakers, it’s proven a tough nut to crack.

Step forward Ubisoft (who have tried and failed in the past), who recently revealed the first trailer for Assassin’s Creed, starring Michael Fassbender as Callum Lynch. With a household name fronting it and the ambitious release date in December reflective of their confidence (the movie opens the week after Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is an extremely bold move), Assassin’s Creed might finally be the winner.

Of course, it’s important to remember that Ubisoft have another tantalising prospect in the shape of the Tom Hardy-starring Splinter Cell adaptation. Initially announced back in 2012, Splinter Cell has endured a bit of a troubled journey trying to make it to the big screen, losing its director Doug Liman back in 2015 along the way, but we have some positive news – the movie is still a go, and Hardy is still attached to star.

As per Total Film, the former CEO of Ubisoft Motion Pictures, Jean-Julien Baronnet, confirmed in an interview that Hardy is still involved with the project while discussing the excitement of having Fassbender front the potential dawn of a golden age for video game adaptations.

“It’s exactly like Tom Hardy with Splinter Cell – we chose Tom for exactly the same reason. Tom is doing indie movies like Bronson and he’s doing Batman [The Dark Knight Rises] or whatever or Mad Max [Fury Road]. So this combination of factors for us was very important because it was a symbol for what we want to do in a movie – which is to do a movie of course that should be mainstream, but with the content we would like to have, so Michael does exactly this kind of stuff.”

The thought of having Hardy star as Sam Fisher in a Splinter Cell adaptation is thrilling for fans of the game franchise. Splinter Cell was first released in 2002 and was tremendously well-received, selling three million copies and winning IGN’s Xbox Game of the Year. That was followed by two impressive sequels, Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory, with the latter widely regarded as the peak in the series. With eight games and a slew of tie-in novels, a movie adaptation has an incredible depth of story to dip into and we’re hoping that, if Assassin’s Creed turns out to be a success for Ubisoft, Splinter Cell will move ahead with Hardy in the driving seat.

Now, what about a Far Cry movie? Or even Rayman!? Would you like to see Tom Hardy as Sam Fisher in a Splinter Cell movie? Make sure to let us know!

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….