Cancelled Splinter Cell movie starring Tom Hardy was 'going to be hardcore and awesome,' says producer: 'That's one of the ones that got away, which is really sad'

The Splinter Cell movie that was set to star Tom Hardy has been canned, according to one of the producers on the project, who told The Direct that the project has been dropped because they "just couldn't get it right."

First things first: Yes indeed, a live-action Splinter Cell was in the works, to some extent. Don't feel bad if you either didn't know or had completely forgotten about it. The film was announced in 2012 with Tom Hardy in the lead as Sam Fisher, and not much else—a deal with a studio hadn't even been struck at that point—and that was pretty much the end of it.

Until today, that is, when producer Basil Iwanyk confirmed that it's not happening. "That movie would have been awesome," Iwanyk said. "Just couldn't get it right, script-wise, budget-wise. But it was going to be great. We had a million different versions of it, but it was going to be hardcore and awesome. That's one of the ones that got away, which is really sad."

It's unfortunate that an "awesome" and "great" film project couldn't overcome basic hurdles to make it across the finish line, but such is the way in the movie biz, I suppose. It also seems to be the way for Splinter Cell, which remains deeply snakebit: A remake of the original announced in 2021 remains MIA and a planned Splinter Cell VR game was cancelled in 2022. Netflix is moving ahead with a Splinter Cell animated series, which might seem like a decent consolation prize in lieu of the film, but Michael Ironside isn't in it so it might as well not even be happening.

Ironically, or however you want to describe it, the Watch Dogs film Ubisoft announced in 2013—after the announcement of the Splinter Cell movie, to be clear—is moving forward, so we're getting that instead. I really do not understand Hollywood.