‘Wanted’ Screenwriters Hired For Sequel, Offer Vague Plot Direction; Mark Millar Teases More Movie Developments
The idea of a sequel to the 2008 filmWanted, based on Mark Millar’s comic series, has been floating around since before the first film even opened. Back in ‘08WantedscreenwritersDerek HaasandMichael Brandt(who shared screen credit with Chris Morgan) were supposedlyhired to script the sequel, but the fact of the theoretical film has never been very certain.Evan Spiliotopoulos, co-writer ofPooh’s Heffalump Movie, waslater hiredto write a draft. As the producers tried and failed to persuadeAngelina Jolieto return for a sequel (a difficult task, given how she ended up in the first film) it looked likeWanted 2might not happen.
The last time we heard from original directorTimur Bekmambetov,he saiddiscussions with Universal were ongoing with respect to the sequel, but the schedule of lead actorJames McAvoywas problematic, as was the degree of control Universal wanted over the film. Now Derek Haas says he and Brandt have been hired to script the sequel once more. And with that news,WantedcreatorMark Millaris taking the opportunity to tease more movie developments.
Derek Haas publicly announced that he and Brandt had been brought back to write, saying viaTwitter,
Michael and I were just hired by Uni to write WANTED 2.
That was earlier today, andThe Wrapquickly reached out to the screenwriter, who saidWanted 2doesn’t yet have a director attached. He did offer that the film will “take off after the events of what just happened. Pick up Wesley a few years later and go back in for another round.” Presumably that means that the producers will try to persuade James McAvoy to return to the lead role. (I don’t know the details of hisWantedcontract, but there could well be an option that Universal could exercise.) [viaComingSoon]
Following this announcement, Mark Millar saidon his own site, “This is one of four or five big movie announcements from Millarworld in the next four weeks. Stay tuned.” The obvious guess is that we might hear someKick-Ass 2news, even though Millar himself recently offered anone-too-optimistic updateon that project.
There’s also the thinly-veiled Batman reworking calledNemesisthat has beenin development, and it’s been a while since we heard anything aboutMillar’s own film,Miracle Park. The writer has other projects in development as well, so those are just guesses for now.
