Actor David Bateson, best known for playing Agent 47 in the series Hitman, told in an interview about the situation with Hitman: Absolutionwhen, for unknown reasons, they wanted to change the voice of the protagonist.
As Bateson admitted, he learned about the incident from journalists and fans, who, shortly after the announcement of Absolution, tried to contact the actor and find out his opinion. He himself did not understand what was happening, so he called his acquaintances from IO Interactive.
In response, he heard surprise that no one contacted Bateson to clarify the situation. Then IOI with difficulty, confusion and embarrassment told the actor that they had decided to replace him in an attempt to make Hitman “different”.
Bateson was not offended by the team, since everyone in the studio is “great people.”
“It was just a communication problem. Nobody wanted to hide it from me, like “let’s keep quiet, maybe he won’t know.” This would be the worst plan“
However, fans of the series were unhappy with the decision to change the actor and began to protest, discouraging people from pre-ordering the game – according to Bateson, the action really paid off and there were not enough orders.
As a result, in May 2012, six months before the release, a representative of IO Interactive called Bateson and offered to meet to discuss his participation in the “new game”. The meeting place was a small cafe, not a studio office.
Before the start of negotiations, the actor was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Everything was as secret as possible and even reminded of films about special agents.
“We are sitting at the table, he hands me an envelope and I answer – “Whom do I need to kill?” They let me know that this is a different game. When I signed the contract, however, it turned out that the speech was still about Hitman – and I can’t say anything, because I signed the embargo“.
As it turned out, the new voice of Agent 47 in the studio was considered inappropriate and behind the back Square enix decided to sign a contract with Bateson. The plan was simple: to record all the lines and present the publisher with a fact – this is the version with the new actor, but with the new-old (Bateson). Take your pick.
Even in the recording studio, the process was as secret as possible – when Bateson was asked what he was doing here, he joked that he had just come on some business.
The whole process took about a month, and after IO Interactive went to Montreal to present Absolution to Square Enix, showing two versions of Agent 47. The publisher decided that Bateson was much more suitable for the character – so he returned to his cult role.
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