A big-screen adaptation of the original Kane & Lynch game, developed by IO Interactive—the studio behind the Hitman series—and released in 2007, was in development for years, with several high-profile Hollywood actors once attached to the project.
This week, Nobody 2 director Timo Tjahjanto took to social media to reveal that he had written a treatment for the Kane & Lynch film, which would have starred David Harbour—best known for his roles as Jim Hopper in Stranger Things and Red Guardian in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
"Never seen a script, but a couple of years ago when that property was still kind of hot, I wrote a short treatment with James Badge Dale and David Harbour in mind," Tjahjanto shared. "Never gotten anywhere."
The Kane & Lynch movie appears to be stuck in development hell. Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images.
While Tjahjanto’s vision never moved forward, he isn’t alone in seeing the project stall. Over the years, multiple attempts to bring Kane & Lynch to the big screen have failed to gain traction.
At one point, Bruce Willis and Jamie Foxx were set to star, but both exited the project as the script underwent numerous rewrites. Later reports suggested a rebooted version would feature Gerard Butler and Vin Diesel in the lead roles, but that iteration also faded into obscurity.
Following the underwhelming reception of the 2010 sequel, Kane & Lynch: Dog Days, IO Interactive shifted its focus entirely to the Hitman franchise, leaving the Kane & Lynch series on indefinite hold. With no active development on the film and no signs of revival, the movie adaptation now seems unlikely to ever materialize.
