Long-Lost Kane & Lynch Movie Concept Had Stranger Things, Thunderbolts* Star David Harbour in Mind

For years, fans of the gritty action game Kane & Lynch, originally developed by the Hitman studio IO Interactive and released in 2007, held out hope for a big screen adaptation. The project was rumored to feature various Hollywood stars at different stages of development.

This week, Timo Tjahjanto, the director of Nobody 2, shared on social media that he had crafted a treatment for the Kane & Lynch film, envisioning David Harbour, known for his roles as Jim Hopper in Stranger Things and Red Guardian in Thunderbolts/New Avengers, as one of the leads. "Never seen a script, but a couple years ago when that property was still kinda hot. I wrote a short treatment with James Badge Dale and David Harbour in mind," Tjahjanto wrote. "Never gotten anywhere."

David Harbour as potential Kane & Lynch lead. Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images. The Kane & Lynch movie now seems unlikely to ever come to fruition. Tjahjanto's treatment, a document that outlines the film's concept for studio consideration before a full script is developed, joins a list of other unproduced ideas for the film.

Previously, the project had been linked to Bruce Willis and Jamie Foxx, but both actors left as the script underwent numerous revisions. Later, another iteration of the film was rumored to star Gerard Butler and Vin Diesel, yet this too fell through.

Following the release of the less well-received sequel, Kane & Lynch: Dog Days in 2010, IO Interactive shifted their focus to the Hitman series, effectively putting the Kane & Lynch franchise on the back burner.