With Doug Liman signed on to direct, and Tom Hardy set for the lead role, the Splinter Cell movie is looking more and more promising with each passing day. Now, the film has a writer in the form of Up in the Air scribe Sheldon Turner. Savvy readers might remember that Hardy, Liman and Turner actually set out to make another movie together last year, when the three attempted to put together Sony’s Everest. That project is now postponed, thanks to Universal’s film of the same name, but it’s clear that this trio still wants to make some movie magic together.
Plot details are thin for the Splinter Cell adaptation but I would imagine that the script will focus on Sam Fisher, the protagonist from the video games. For those who don’t know, Fisher is a black-ops agent who works for the fictional NSA group Third Echelon. Presumably, the film will have him protecting the nation and/or attempting to stop some kind of terrorist threat.
While I’d usually scoff at any attempt to translate Tom Clancy’s iconic gaming series to the big screen, this one has a ton of potential. With an exceptionally strong trio of talent now attached, I see no reason why Splinter Cell can’t buck the trend of recent video game adaptations and deliver a spy thriller on par with Liman’s first entry in the genre (The Bourne Identity)
Splinter Cell will start shooting this August, so stay tuned for more updates. In the meantime, let us know what you think of Turner penning the script by leaving a comment below.