Angelina Jolie in Wanted.
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Exclusive: Getting What You WANTED

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Mr. McAvoy (Wanted’s hero Wesley Gibson), Timur Bekmembetov (director), Actor/Rapper Common (The Gunsmith) and actor Thomas Kretschmann  (Wanted’s “bad-guy” Cross) and talk to them about how it all came together. They were all down to earth, nice as pie and as excited as I was about Wanted.

Studio People Torture Creative People

According to director Bekmambetov, the movie came together with script work being done right up until the final edit. Animatic pre-visual sequences were sometimes created first with his effects team and THEN sent to the writers and added to the script.  In the hands of most action directors this would amount to a staggering mess. In Timur’s hands, the freedom to create on the fly allowed wonderful things to happen (Check out the “train between two mountains” shot).  He described the entire process as being “very organic." He continues, in his wonderful Russian accent: “It was surprising for me because I thought the Hollywood way of producing movies would be very restrictive…but it’s not; it’s the same mess that it is in Russia." 

He also spoke very highly of Universal and their willingness to let him realize his vision for the film and considers them brave for doing so given the unconventional nature of the movie. He called Universal’s involvement “a collaboration,” “I was surprised…we all hear the myths of how bad studio people are, of how they torture creative people. That’s bullshit. It’s not true, at least with me.”

Bekmambetov also spoke of how the film breaks from following the graphic novel on which it’s based around the end of the first act. I haven’t read the graphic novel but it was interesting to hear his ideas. “When I started the project, there were no super-villains…in the script.” He goes on to say “For the film audience it’s quite important to know why your hero is killing people (he can’t be) just killing people for fun. If it’s a 20 minute short film I can do it exactly like it is in the comic but if I want to create a journey, if I want to create the arc of the character I need an idea for why my character wants to be different…In the comic book it’s just 1) life is boring 2) gun 3) let’s destroy everything…If you want to keep (the audiences interest for a longer period of time) you need an idea and the idea that the Fraternity is killing people to keep the balance of the world, it’s what my character and the audience will believe for two hours.”

The Lion Locked Inside

One of the main themes of the movie is that there is a lion locked inside of us and we must only find the key to unlock it.

I asked him how he connected to the “lion locked inside” philosophy of the movie and what it meant to him. He believes that too few movies supply messages that the audience can take home with them. He cited The Matrix as a rare exception and thinks that we all have resources deep within us that are just waiting to be tapped.  Have you seen that video on break.com of the office worker that destroys the office? We made it…in Russia. It’s not real. 5,000,000 saw it on break.com. That means its subject is very tangible. Millions of people are sitting in their offices everyday, five days a week (thinking they have) no chance to escape. I think this movie will give them a chance to come back with an understanding that they can be more.

Angelina Jolie is a “FOX”

While they were in pre-production the pivotal role of Fox still hadn’t been cast. Bekmambetov took it in stride though as he explains: “Three months before shooting we still didn’t have our Fox (Angelina Jolie’s appropriately named character). We all thought that we’d find her and that all the pieces would come together but we didn’t have our Fox yet. We met a lot of actresses and they were great but we couldn’t find someone who could engage emotionally in the right way. Angelina can surprise and attract and it was very important to find the right person for James. I still think that she’s the only actress who could play Fox. She’s causes Wesley to really fall in love with this world and he really becomes a believer and if he does then the audience does.” 

He then goes on to reveal that “The Angelina character originally had ten times more dialogue and we lost all those lines because it didn’t work with that character. She’s a killer not a spokesman. She cannot explain things, she has to act. Morgan Freeman, he’s a mentor, he can talk.”

No Blue Filter!

On my own personal side note here:

A golf clap is in order for cinematographer Mitchell Amundsen for not using either blue or amber filters. The cinematography is really well constructed in that it starts small, stark and intimate and as our hero grows so does the scope and composition of the shots. It’s a wonderful method used to an effective end. I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting for someone to take the blue filter out into a field and shoot it.

James McAvoy: Action Hero?

At first (or even second glance) you wouldn’t think of James McAvoy as an action star but that’s the whole point. His character is about as far away from being an action hero as you or I. An apathetic, depressed weakling in a cubicle, it’s this character that really is the emotional center of WANTED. He’s got a terrifically realized arc and while he enjoyed making his character fully fleshed out, he also enjoyed taking a hit or two from Ms. Jolie “She’s a good puncher!” he says and goes on to reveal “I love nothing more than taking a hit in a film. I don’t know what it is. I think it might be from watching Indiana Jones movies when I was a kid. Nobody takes a hit better than Harrison Ford. He almost looks more heroic taking a punch than giving one. I love being the person getting beat up, being covered in blood, doing that whole gag with the blood flying out of the mouth. I love all that.”

He also had a blast doing many of his own stunts. This is what he had to say about one of the more riveting stunts in the film: “I’m chasing someone and hop a ride on a car and it hits the breaks and I go flying off the front and a truck smashes into its side. That was all real. There were no wires or mats. But they wouldn’t let me jump through a pane of sugar glass which, at the very most, would scratch me up a little but they let me do this thing with the car. I couldn’t quite rationalize what their decision making process was based on or what the insurance people were thinking but I was just very jazzed to get to do something like that. I was very excited and pleased but at the same time I was very worried!

The “Common” Man

Actor/Rapper Common Appears as “The Gunsmith”, a weapon’s expert. While he doesn’t necessarily say much in the film, his presence is definitely a strong one. When asked how he tackled his part he had this to say: “I approached Gunsmith as a spiritual warrior. I looked at him as a Buddha type…and like a Samurai. He (The Gunsmith) really wanted to train Wesley to become not only good at weaponry but as a warrior; mentally, emotionally and spiritually.” 

How does he balance his career as both a rapper and an actor? “When I filmed WANTED I was at the end of recording my last album. These two worlds both help each other. I feel freer…and having more fun doing music because I’m doing movies. I guess that’s because it’s not my only source of expression anymore. I’m putting out a new album…in august…which is the quickest I’ve ever recorded an album. It’s called “Invincible Summer” - It came from touring internationally and seeing people really enjoying themselves. It’s feel good music; let’s enjoy ourselves; letting loose. I want to have that in my palette.

Green Lanterns and Mean Machines

When asked about his possible role as Green Lantern in the “on-again off-again” Justice League film, Common remarked: “I don’t know what’s happening with Justice League. If they do it I would LOVE to be a part of it but I haven’t heard anything. I love Green Lantern. His super power is his mind; he can create anything from his mind as long as he has his ring. That’s me! (laughs)” When asked what his “ring” is he responds: “My ring is God. As long as I’m in tune with God then I’m able to create the things that I want.”

He also spoke about internet rumors regarding the ending of Terminator 4. He gives no weight to the speculation: “Even I don’t know what the ending is…I don’t know if the writer has revealed the ending yet” He does have this to say though about the anxiously awaited chapter in the quadrilogy: “I play a character named Barnes who fights along side John Conner as a freedom fighter in the resistance against the machines.

Midnight is Not So High For Kretschmann

Thomas Kretschmann who plays Wanted’s “cold blooded bad guy” Cross in the film flew into the room with a huge open jar of joviality. I think he caught us all a little by surprise by energetically shaking everyone’s hand with a grand smile on his face. Kretschmann talks fast and moves from subject to subject. Self-effacing, open and funny, when one of my colleagues in the room says that this is not the persona they would have expected from the guy that plays Cross he shoots back “why thank you, that means you think I look so much smaller, I’m goofy and not cool, thank you very much”. We all laugh

When asked how he got the part of Cross he quickly says “It was easy, they called and offered it to me and I accepted. Gratefully!”

How do you prepare for a role in which you play the world’s best assassin? “It requires that I know how to deal with weapons. And I’m chasing Angelina Jolie who is not only…really cool but on top of it she really knows how to deal with weapons; she knows how to fight better than most men. The story says that I taught her (what she knows as an assassin). I worked with the (weapons guys) who taught her on “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”, they also worked on our film. I tried to get used to weapons. I didn’t want to think twice while I was shooting about how I was holding the gun. It was supposed to be second nature so that’s really the…thing I was concerned about.

When pressed upon his role in the upcoming horror/western “High Midnight” he says, surprisingly, that he has neither done it nor does he know anything about it (Someone should tell IMDB).

I also asked him what his favorite movie is he shot back “Blade Runner…followed by The Godfather and The Deer Hunter…”  A true movie man!

What's Next for Mr. Bekmambetov?

“I have a project; I hope it will happen soon. It depends on the reaction to WANTED. It’s kind of secret but it will be a movie with a new type of martial art. We know swords, we know punches, we know light sabers, and this will be brand new. It will be original but we don’t have a title yet.”