Is one of the most underrated action films of the 2000s going to get a unique sequel? The director gives us some news on the subject.
In 2008, there was a comic book film released by Universal Pictures that adapted a story from the infamous comic book writer, Mark Millar, that was titled after the comic series itself, Wanted. This action-thriller film followed a young man who was brought into a secret group of assassins with a façade of a cotton mill. This film popularized the idea of curving bullets out of a handgun and was filled with both melee and gunplay action. This film ended up being a financial and critical success and was actually the first American film made by the director, Timur Bekmambetov. Actually, before the film was released, Bekmambetov discussed that a sequel to the upcoming action-thriller movie was in the pre-production phases. However, over a decade has passed, Timur Bekmambetov has wrote, directed, and produced multiple films, none of them were a sequel to Wanted. But for the first time in awhile, news about the sequel has emerged.
In case you have not seen this film it must be understood that since the initial comic book series was about a group of assassins, it is expected to have some sort of ensemble cast behind the movie. Leading this cast is a pre-Prequel Charles Xavier from the X-Men series, James McAvoy. This Scottish actor played Wesley Gibson, a cubicle office worker who finds out he is the heir to one of the best assassins in the world. Since McAvoy was relatively unknown to the United States audience, and we did not know how amazing this actor actually would become, or how mediocre his accent was, it was a good fit for a misfit character. Seriously, even if you have not seen this 2008 film before, go back and watch/listen to his American accent. He has since perfected it but golly, it was bad. Regardless, McAvoy’s acting of a neurotic and troubled desk jockey was impeccable and his character arc was beautifully executed. This is also one of the first biggest on-screen roles for the rapper Common, along with a pre-Parks and Recreation Chris Pratt. Common did what he does best and played an intimidating, reserved member of the assassins who teaches new members in weaponry.
Then Pratt plays a non-assassin dick of a best friend for James McAvoy’s character who sleeps with his current girlfriend. Something about Chris Pratt, with all his comedy and sarcasm that he is well-known for, on top of his physical appearance before he got jacked for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (I know I know, I am mentioning the MCU again) made him a perfect menace and minor antagonist for McAvoy’s Wesley. These are just the names that were relatively unknown to people of the United States. This film’s cast was built on two big Hollywood names, Angelina Jolie, who was the love interest who can kick ass and shoot the wings off a fly, and Morgan Freeman, the wise leader of the assassins who will lull you into security with his soft voice before killing you. Not much more needs to be said.
As mentioned above the film’s director, Timur Bekmambetov, had planned to make a sequel for this film but nothing has come from it since. However, recently, Bekmambetov recently signed a five movie deal with Universal Pictures and one of them could be the long awaited Wanted sequel. Since this 2008 film was released, Timur Bekmambetov has worked on various films, mostly films that deal with screenlife technology. These films, that Bekmambetov has either wrote, directed, or produced, are the likes of Unfriended (2015), Unfriended: Dark Web (2018), Profile (2018), and as seen pictured above, Searching (2018). The technology used here makes a film where the entire silver screen is from the point of view of a computer screen. So when John Cho was “searching” for his daughter, the movie audience would see the texts he sent on iMessage, the video calls he had with lawyers and law enforcement, and the websites he would go on for assistance. The reason Timur Bekmambetov’s works are important for the Wanted sequel is because this next film could use this technology to tell its story.
Timur Bekmambetov recently said “I cannot imagine an assassin in today’s world would run with a gun. Why? He will use drones, he will use computer technology, probably. You don’t need to bend bullets anymore…” Looking past the misogynistic use of pronouns, Bekmambetov’s idea for his sequel intrigues me greatly. I have never seen any of his movies start to finish, besides doing walk-throughs for my movie theater job, but this style truly interests me. Especially when there are espionage and action elements added into the mix, I think Timur Bekmambetov could truly help splinter off a whole sub-genre of filmmaking that he has already started with his prior films. I think the one thing that has hindered his prior films are that they have been mainly horror or thriller films. While the audience for these films are passionate, there is a lot of potential and use that the screenlife technology could be used for. If Bekmambetov is able to succeed with this film, I can only imagine how this technology will be used for future films. Could “the guy in the chair” archetype from superhero films have a whole movie dedicated to their perspective? Could an audience pay witness to a love story grow and develop following similar trends that real world couples do nowadays? The possibilities are quite endless.
Regardless of if Timur Bekmambetov will make a sequel to Wanted, and despite how this hypothetical film will be produced and put together, none of this will take away from the greatness of the original film. I highly recommend watching this film because on top of the amazing ensemble cast, and the high-intensity action, this film is filled with surprising plot twists, excellently illustrated out story arcs, and just the right amount of candle wax baths.
The Direct Cut 
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