Star Angelina Jolie poses on arrivals at the Mr. and Mrs. Smith premiere copyright Sue Schneider
© 2005 Sue Schneider
WANTED Pic and Set Videos
By: Jarrod Sarafin, News EditorDate: Saturday, August 11, 2007
A movie set photo and some set videos of the comic adaptation, WANTED, has appeared online. The film is based off the graphic novel series by Mark Millar and will be directed by Timur Bekmambetov (same director as the Russian franchise, NIGHTWATCH). It stars James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Common, Kristen Hager, Konstantin Khabensky and Terence Stamp. Filming is taking place right now in Chicago and it's expected to hit theaters March 28, 2008 for Universal Pictures.
Plot Summary: 25-year-old account manager Wes (James McAvoy) was the most pathetic, cube-dwelling hypochondriac the planet had ever known. His boss chewed him out hourly, his girlfriend cheated on him daily and his life plodded on interminably. Everyone was certain this weakling would never amount to anything. There was little else for Wes to do but wile away the days and die a slow, clock-punching death.
Until he became Wanted.
After the murder of a father he never knew, Wes discovers powers beyond his dreams. He becomes the latest recruit in the Fraternity--a secret society of assassins--and develops lightning-quick reflexes with superhuman agility. Wes soon learns his league of henchmen has but one mission: carry out the death orders of the mythological Fates, weavers of every man's lifeline.
With wickedly brilliant tutors, he morphs into a killing machine and starts erasing one bad guy after another. But as Wes grows into the mantle passed down by his father...he discovers his clan members are not exactly the enforcers of justice they claim to be. Just as he gets everything he ever Wanted, Wesley Gibson will learn that with the ability to deliver death comes an even more difficult power...controlling your own life.
MyFoxChicago has 4 videos of "filming" for WANTED published here. Click on the 4 video links but beware the advertisements just like their Batman coverage.
Even worse, they seem to have changed the story. What I remember of the graphic novel, the Eminem guy is told pretty much from the start, who he is... and what is expected of him, including the fact that the Fraternity is evil...and he can get away with anything...any crime, any where...sort of like having secret deplomatic immunity.
It's like The Matrix...and he's the One, but he's recruited by, and working for the Agents...not the good guys, who are all dead. If he chooses to rape and murder a famous Hollywood actress, he can do it...and its covered up as a suicide or accidental death by the time it hits the news media.
I thought that was the point of making this story into a movie, to show a world where crime, including rape and murder is secretly celebrated by the secret society elite who are running the world from the shadows, unknown to the masses.
Looks like that irony has been totally gutted from this film in favor of making this guy a hero--which begs the question: What is the point of making this comic book into a film if you are going to change all of the elements that serve to make it unique???