Eidos Interactive, one of the world's leading publishers and developers of entertainment software, can confirm that production on the HITMAN movie has begun.

Filming commenced on March 27 and will continue in and around the Bulgarian capital of Sofia for 12 weeks before moving on to locations in South Africa, St. Petersburg and London. Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood, Die Hard 4.0) stars as the world's deadliest assassin and Dougray Scott (Mission: Impossible II, Desperate Housewives) portrays the antagonist. Olga Kurylenko (Paris je t'aime), Robert Knepper (Prison Break), Ulrich Thomsen (Festen) and Michael Offei (Casino Royale) also have joined the cast of the videogame adaptation.

The game's story centers around an international assassin known only as Agent 47 (Olyphant) who works for a mysterious organization dubbed the Agency. The Hitman videogames have sold in excess of six million units worldwide, with the most recent instalment, Hitman: Blood Money selling 1.4 million units worldwide and reaching No.1 in all key territories.

The movie is being directed by Xavier Gens from a screenplay by Skip Woods (Swordfish) and produced by Luc Besson, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, Adrian Askarieh and Charles Gordon with Daniel Alter as a co-producer.

The film will be released in France through EuropaCorp Distribution and in the rest of the world through Twentieth Century Fox, a division of Fox Filmed Entertainment.