A big-screen adaptation of the original Kane & Lynch game, developed by the Hitman studio IO Interactive and released in 2007, had been in the works for years. Over time, various Hollywood stars were attached to the project, sparking excitement among fans.

This week, Timo Tjahjanto, the director of Nobody 2, shared on social media that he had written a treatment for the Kane & Lynch film that would have featured David Harbour, known for his roles as Jim Hopper in Stranger Things and Red Guardian, Florence Pugh's dad in Thunderbolts/New Avengers. "Never seen a script, but a couple of 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."

The Kane & Lynch movie feels dead in the water. Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images.

Tjahjanto can take some comfort knowing that his treatment—one of many ideas for a Kane & Lynch movie—never made it to the screen. A treatment is a briefing document prepared for a film studio from which a script is developed.

For several years, Bruce Willis and Jamie Foxx were attached to the project, but both actors eventually dropped out as the script underwent multiple rewrites. Later, another version of the film was reportedly set to star Gerard Butler and Vin Diesel in the lead roles, but this also never came to fruition.

Ultimately, following the release of the average game sequel, Kane & Lynch: Dog Days in 2010, IO Interactive shifted their focus entirely to the Hitman franchise, leaving the Kane & Lynch series behind.