Angelina Jolie talks Wanted 2

Recently Timur Bekmambetov was talking about making Wanted 2 and how he would like Angelina Jolie to return. Spoilers ahead.

For those of you who know, Jolie's character bends a bullet at the end of the film that takes down all the bad guys including herself. The film, and the Mark Millar comic it was based on, was full of mad concepts and included a place where the characters where healed in super quick time. However, there was no mention of characters being brought back from the dead.
The comic did feature lots of parallel dimensions though so it could possibly bring back characters that way, but that still doesn't fit into the film version.

However, they could probably fit something into the universe they set up to do this and if that was the case could also mean a possible return for the other characters who died in the first one.

Now MTV have an interview with Jolie that seems to indicate in no uncertain terms that her character isn’t likely to return for a sequel, but that could just be movie talk while deals and money is being discussed.

Back in November 2008, MTV spoke to Jolie and she discussed her final scene in the film.

“In the original, she doesn’t kill herself,” said Jolie. “I actually changed the ending. I said, ‘If she was to find out she had killed people unjustly and was a part of something that wasn’t fair, then she should take her own life.’”

That means it was Jolie who wanted the character to die due to what she had done.

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Wanted 2 - Timur Bekmambetov says it is so....and Angelina is back?

The film based on Mark Millar's cool comic, Wanted, has spawned a sequel and looks as if there will be some surprises in it. Last I heard it was going to follow Wesley (James Mcavoy) travelling around the World hunting down more of the Assassin's Guild that recruited him. If you haven't seen the first one, beware spoilers ahead.

Evan Spiliotopoulos had been hired to write a script based off of a story by Wanted writer Chris Morgan

“In July we will start preparation for the film. I think in the late autumn or winter shooting will be performed” Bekmambetov said to Russia IC. “The shooting will take place in America, India and Russia”

The film director and producer promised that in the sequel he would bring back to life Angelina Jolie’s character, who perished at the end of the first movie. In addition to that, new characters will be introduced in the sequel.

“As for the character played by Kostya Khabenskiy (the bloke who ran the healing spa place), we’ll think about it. We might possibly resurrect him as well” the film director said.

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Kick-Ass 2 is in the works according to Mark Millar

SciFi Wire have an interview with comic book writer Mark Millar about Kick-Ass directed by Matthew Vaughn.

"Wanted made a fortune. It made a ton of money, and it was a property nobody had ever heard of. And I think Kick-Ass is going to be even bigger," Millar says.

"Kick-Ass 2 is already being plotted out. We're planning it, because all the actors are quite young and we have to make it relatively quickly. So we'll definitely do that inside the next 18 to 24 months."

We have yet to see a trailer to the first film and there is no distibutor in place for it just yet. However, as Millar says, Wanted was quite a big hit and if this is marketed just right Kick-Ass could be another.

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Hallelujah - Millar's American Jesus may rise to the big screen

Director Matthew Vaughn ("Stardust," "Layer Cake") is eyeing American Jesus, another adaptation of a comic by Wanted author Mark Millar, as his next film says The Hollywood Reporter.

The story centers on the return of Christ in the modern world, leading to a final confrontation with the Antichrist in a bid to save humanity.

The comic began life as a three-issue Dark Horse mini-series in 2006 entitled Chosen. That plan was expanded into a trilogy of mini-series with the second, The Resurrection, being released this Autumn.

Vaughn is presently in post-production on the adaption of Millar's "Kick Ass". Like that film, it's likely this one will be financed independently.

The pair are also developing a still unannounced action film project.

Now I've read Chosen and unless I'm getting mixed up with another comic that deals with a kid who finds out he is actually the second coming of Christ and then has to convince the World, then I am not sure how the series can carry on as expected. Anyone else read it and know what I'm talking about?

Needless to say that, like Kick-Ass, this will have people up in arms once it hits the mainstream.

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UPDATED: The Courier - Russell "Highlander" Mulcahey and Adrien Brody

Here is the synopsis for Mulcahey's latest film, The Courier. Sounds pretty cool, but a bit Transporterish.

A million bucks, just to a deliver a briefcase…

It’s a job too good to be true, especially if you’re the COURIER, a daredevil carrier renowned for taking on impossible missions who’s never, ever missed a drop. The only catch is delivering it to someone who can’t be found, not even by the FBI, and when that someone is the notorious, never seen King of the Underworld EVIL SIVLE who’s very name makes the toughest tremble, there’s a lot more than reputation and money on the line.

With a baying pack of double crossing feds, conniving crooked cops and ruthless rival crime bosses in hot pursuit, the Courier trail blazes a world-wide chase for the most wanted man in the land. Drugged, beaten, tortured and two timed, the bloodhound bagman discovers easy money was never so hard, and tracking the elusive kingpin to Las Vegas learns just why Evil is the one person on the planet no one can find, and why he really is the King…

UPDATE: The writers are Michael Brandt and Derek Haas who wrote Wanted (Filmstalker review) and 3:10 to Yuma.
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The Guardians most ridiculous plots of the year - Spoilers ahoy!

1. The Dark Knight - The Joker's criminal genius
Wait, so the Joker really orchestrated that big truck chase just so that he could get caught and go to prison, then he could kidnap that guard and grab his phone to make the call to set off the bomb he'd previously sewn inside the henchman in the next cell? That would kill the guy who stole the mobsters' money, thus enabling him to … er, what? Heath Ledger's Joker may have been a psychopath, but he had a nerdish capacity for forward planning.

2. Sex And The City - has Big ever used a phone?
OMG Carrie's getting married! Can you believe all the dresses? Can you also believe that Big tries to call her on the day, but some little scamp has run off with her phone? Couldn't he just call Miranda or someone? No, because despite having known them all for 10 years he doesn't have their numbers. Nor is he capable of just getting out of the car and walking in.

3. Iron Man - the cunning getaway
Ha ha! We have kidnapped imperialist weapons dealer Tony Stark. Now let's put him in a cell and force him to build us a missile. We won't need to put guards in with him because we've got these fiendish CCTV cameras. True, it's still possible for him to hide round the corner, but what can go wrong? We'll also overlook those working drawings. Wait a minute! That's not a missile, it's a robo-destruction suit. And now he's in it, killing us all! D'oh!

4. Hancock - immortal and invisible?
What? So there's this one guy on the planet who's been alive, like, forever, and can fly, stop bullets, leap tall buildings, etc, and nobody is the slightest bit curious as to who the hell he is and where he came from? What was he doing during, say, the second world war?

5. Wanted - The Loom of Fate
OK, we can swallow James McAvoy as an action hero. And we'll believe that there's a secret league of assassins who can bend bullets round corners. Even that they were descended from a guild of weavers. But hang on, the Loom of Fate? A mystical apparatus whose woven product has the future of mankind encrypted in its fibres?

6. Indiana Jones - Shia of the Apes
Luckily we've overpowered these Nazis but now they're chasing us down this convenient set of parallel tracks someone has cut through the jungle! Phew, none of us got hurt but where's Shia LaBeouf gone? Thank God (or Spielberg): he's turned into Tarzan. Here he comes swinging through the trees on vines, with a troupe of monkeys.

7. Mamma Mia! - the paternity issue
Which one of these three men could be Sophie's father? If only there was some reliable, scientific way of finding out. She can't get a DNA test, of course, because Abba never wrote a song about that.

8. Man On Wire - don't look down!
A man breaks into the World Trade Centre and walks a tightrope between the towers. Yeah, right.

Source: The Guardian

Anyone got any more?
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Wanted: Weapons of Fate - Trailer for video game based on James McAvoy film based on Mark Millar's comic

Wanted: Weapons of Fate is an upcoming video game developed by GRIN and published by Universal Studios. It is set to be released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game is set in the continuity of the 2008 film and picks up where the movie left off with Wesley (James McAvoy) taking on the French chapter of “The Fraternity”.

The Wiki entry states, "Based on Universal Pictures’ action-thriller Wanted, starring James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie, the Wanted videogame, Wanted: Weapons of Fate, promises to deliver the same fantastic visual style and edge-of-your-seat action as the blockbuster motion picture.

In Wanted: Weapons of Fate players continue the story of hero Wesley Gibson, picking up the action where the film left off to create an entirely new chapter exploring both Wesley’s journey to becoming an unmatched überassassin and the epic fiction of “The Fraternity" in the Wanted mythology. Players will take on the role of Wesley or his father Cross and confront all new enemies, including the French chapter of the Fraternity, a group that is fanatical about upholding the code of the Loom of Fate. The French chapter is headed by The Immortal, a severe Fraternity leader with a grudge against Wesley and his family, and also employs Araña, a beautiful but deadly Spanish assassin, and Brummel, the businessman assassin who is as street smart as he is sophisticated.

Featuring intense third-person action, Wanted: Weapons of Fate will take combat to the next level with iconic moves such as “Curving Bullets” and “Assassin Time” drawn directly from the film, as well as an innovative, multi-layered cover mechanic."

Now that states the game follows on from the film, but you can play as Wesley's father Cross, who apparantly died in the film. Not sure if this will be as a flashback in the game or just a wiki-error.

Here's the trailer.

Wanted (Game) Trailer
by GamersMOTION

What are your thoughts on this after seeing the trailer?
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Wanted, 2008 - Review

Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Starring: James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman
Running Time: 110 minutes

Score: 9/10
Another great review from Steven.

A flawed, but beautifully orchestrated assault on the senses. A fantastic summer action flick, and nothing less of what I'd expect from Timur.

Wanted, based off of a graphic novel along the lines of Sin City and V for Vendetta, is the tale of Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), and his introduction to the mythical, secretive and ancient assassins' guild, The Fraternity. Wesley is hilariously introduced as a nobody, with an out of body, auto-narrator guiding the story, somewhat akin to the show Scrubs. From there the film picks up running and doesn't let up until the final bullet finds its resting place.

Wanted is directed by the masterful Timur Bekmambetov, the Kazakh filmmaker behind the Neo-Vampire Russian language films Night Watch, and Day Watch. People will at once compare this to Fight Club and The Matrix films. However Wanted is much more akin to Bekmambetov's previous work that expands and borrows from the aforementioned films. Think of Wanted not as a blatant rip-off of these films, but an evolution. Bullets curve, wax heals all wounds, and the ultimate weapon is a vat of peanut butter mixed with gasoline. Wanted uses every trick in the action film checklist, and turns these elements up to 11. Sex Appeal, check, Car Chases, check, Extremely High body count, check, Double Crosses, check, gallons of blood, check, an unlikely "hero", check.

Wanted is ripe with all of these and more, the story is nothing what it seems, and you simply need to wait till the end to the satisfying conclusion which contains, an infamous line, to see how it all goes down. It's a bloody, adrenaline pumping, sickly funny, and blood curdling romp down a lane less treaded in cinema today, and frankly its the most fun I've had at the cinema since Hot Fuzz last year.

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Weekend US Box Office

Here is what's what over in the States. Cheers to Matt. First figure is this weekends take and the second is the gross take. Indy 4 has done incredibly well.

1. Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) $35.9M $35.9M
2 Hancock (2008) $33M $165M
3 Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) $20.6M $20.6M
4 WALL·E (2008) $18.5M $163M
5 Wanted (2008) $11.6M $112M
6 Get Smart (2008) $7.11M $111M
7 Meet Dave (2008) $5.3M $5.3M
8 Kung Fu Panda (2008) $4.3M $202M
9 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008) $2.36M $11M
10 Indiana Jones...Crystal Skull (2008) $2.25M $310M

Wanted to The Red Star

Timur Bekmambetov has got something in the works now that Wanted has been done and out the way. His new project is The Red Star, based on a comic book set in a mythic / sci-fi Russia.

"I have in development a... very interesting script called THE RED STAR based on
the comic book. It's my dream project. It's something between STAR WARS and DR. ZHIVAGO." - Timur Bekmambetov, June 25, 2008, ComicsToFilm.com

Now I don't know too much about the comic book (although I'm sure there was a computer game out a while ago based on it). Wikipedia has this to say and it all sounds suitably epic. Possible spoilers so be careful.

The first four issues of The Red Star tell the story of the war of the state and the Red Fleet / Army against Al'Istaan, told in a retrospective by Maya Antares, who remembers her husband's death in that war. Having penetrated deeply into Al'Nistaani, the fleet of Red Star skyfurnaces, gigantic flying warships up to three kilometres long, seem to destroy their enemies when the volcanic fury of their engines is directed on the massed enemies below.

However, the ancient protector of the Nistaani, Kar Dathra the Immortal, appears, and powered by the mystical energies of his thousands of dying followers - manages to destroy almost the whole of the Red Fleet.

The further three of the first four issues deal mainly with the panicked attempt of
Maya to reach her husband, fighting a grim and hopeless infantry battle on the
ground where suddenly, the might of the Red Fleet crashes down and burns,
turning certain victory into history-changing defeat. The deaths and the spiritual energies released by the dying soldiers waken other mystical beings, whose goals and allegiances are still not fully known in the first issues. Their apparent warring over the dead souls, especially that of Marcus Antares, become a major plot of the later issues.

Marcus himself is saved by the appearance of a mysterious ghost known only as the Red Woman. She saves his soul from becoming a captive of the evil sorcerer Troika - servant of the evil Imbohl.

Defeating Troika in a duel, the Red Woman spirits Marcus away into the Spiritrealm, informing him that "It was not our people who were defeated here, but our past-- and the path to our future begins with you."

Kick-Ass - Millar's next comic to movie

Mark Millar's comic book, Kick-Ass, is going the movie route. He's had huge success with Wanted so looks like all his books are getting picked up. Mind you Kick-Ass has always been multimedia with the initial push on MySpace and the Youtube viral advertising (see below).

Kick-Ass is all about a 16 year old lad who decides to become a superhero. He gets a costume, works out and goes out on patrol. Obviously he gets seriously beaten up. It's a pretty good comic with lovely art work by the wonderful John Romita Jr.

The movie is going to be directed by Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust) with a script penned by Jane Goldman. There is a great interview in the Evening Times with Mark Millar where this gets mentioned along with Wanted and taking his 10 year old daughter to meet all the famous Hollywood people.
No word on who will be playing Kick-Ass but Millar says that, "it's a heart-throb to make jaws drop".

U.S. Weekend Box Office

1. Hancock - $66 million weekend, $107 million since Wednesday - Still not seen it, don't really want to see it. Think they should have stayed with the original title, "Tonight, He Comes"
2. WALL-E - $33.4 million
3. Wanted - $20.6 million - Not too shabby for a movie based on an indie comic book.
4. Get Smart - $11.1 million
5. Kung Fu Panda - $7.5 million

Wanted to be a Trilogy

Cinema Blend have news that Wanted will be the beginning of a trilogy.

James McAvoy and Terrance Stamp have signed up and there will be flashbacks going into the history of Angelina Jolie's character, Fox. Here teacher will be the big bad of the series.

It will also go international with Wesley fighting various Cells of The Fraternity. Still all a million miles from Mark Millar's original tale.