A grand, big-screen adaptation of the original Kane & Lynch game—developed by acclaimed studio IO Interactive back in 2007—has been a long-standing Hollywood rumor for over a decade. Throughout the years, various high-profile actors were linked to the project, but nothing ever made it past development hell.
This week, director Timo Tjahjanto (The Night Comes For Us, Nobody 2) took to social media to reveal that he once crafted a treatment for a Kane & Lynch film starring David Harbour—best known for his roles in Stranger Things and the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Red Guardian.
“I never actually wrote a full script,” Tjahjanto explained, “but a couple of years ago, when the property was still somewhat hot, I put together a short treatment with James Badge Dale and David Harbour in mind. Unfortunately, it never went anywhere.”
The Kane & Lynch movie remains unrealized. Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images.
While Tjahjanto’s vision didn’t move forward, it seems his wasn’t the only attempt at bringing the chaotic world of Kane & Lynch to life. Over the years, numerous iterations of the film were proposed, each falling apart before production could begin.
At one point, Bruce Willis and Jamie Foxx were attached to star, but both eventually exited the project amid constant script rewrites. Later reports even suggested a version starring Gerard Butler and Vin Diesel in the lead roles, though this too fizzled out without any concrete progress.
After the release of the underwhelming sequel Kane & Lynch: Dog Days in 2010, IO Interactive chose to step away from the franchise entirely, shifting its focus back to its more successful Hitman series.
For now, fans will have to keep dreaming of what could’ve been—a gritty action film based on a polarizing but memorable video game duo.
