Wanted Director Takes On Moby Dick

This could be interesting in Timur's hands:

WANTED Helmer Timur Bekmambetov is to tackle a new movie version of the classic tale of MOBY DICK. Universal Pictures has juist paid a large sum to screenwriting duo Adam Cooper and Bill Collage for their script, which sees their graphic novel-style approach change the classic story structure.

Variety reports that gone is the first-person narration by the young seaman Ishmael, who observes how Ahab's obsession with killing the great white whale overwhelms his good judgment as captain. The trade adds that this change will allow them to depict the whale's decimation of other ships prior to its encounter with Ahab's Pequod, and Ahab will be depicted more as a charismatic leader than a brooding obsessive.

"Our vision isn't your grandfather's Moby Dick," screenwriter Adam Cooper explained. "This is an opportunity to take a timeless classic and capitalize on the advances in visual effects to tell what at its core is an action-adventure revenge story."

Hope it's better than Peter Jackson's King Kong. Timur, please don't hire Jack Black. Love him, just not in the action pics, and he's no Ahab!

What was the most ridiculous thing about Wanted?

EW has a fun quiz -- but only read further if you've seen the movie!

**SPOILER ALERT**
A. Morgan Freeman's character translating binary code spat out by the "Loom of Fate" to determine which global bad guys were up for assassination.
B. A magical wax bath healing (overnight!) the injuries McAvoy sustained after colliding face-first with a cement overpass during a rousing game of subway surfing.
C. McAvoy's character using a dump truck full of peanut butter to capture a small army of rats-cum-suicide-bombers.
D. Multiple characters surviving (practically unscathed) after their train car plummeted several thousand feet off a bridge and then wedged itself between the narrowing rock edges of an Eastern European canyon.
E. A shrill female character cheating on the hotness that is James McAvoy.
F. Other. [Fill in your option in the comments section below.]

All of the above isn't an option!! LOL!! I'd have to pick E. What was she thinking when she had James in her bed?!!

Wanted - mini-review

It killed me to wait, but we were at a family reunion all weekend, and I couldn't see Wanted until Monday afternoon. So, you're wondering, was it worth the wait and the hype? Hell, yeah!

This movie is a non-stop adrenaline rush. I got a kick out of the fact it was set in Chicago, but commuters can only dream that L trains go that fast!

Angelina Jolie is just so at home in her own skin in action roles like this. Morgan Freeman, excellent as usual. But, James, oh my, James McAvoy. His performance is simply brilliant. I can't imagine anyone better in this role. He starts out the movie as this nervous nebbishy cubicle slave, and ends the movie as a total badass. He makes the transformation completely believable. I feel like he poured everything he's been in other movies into this role, at times nervous and twitchy, sometimes showing anguish and emotional pain full out there, and then his intensity which has been seen sometimes in other films is given full throttle. Just brilliant. (James has even said that he made himself pass out by unknowingly holding his breath during intense scenes.)

What I am also excited about with this movie is the director, Timur Bekmambetov, a Russian-Khazak. People have been talking about two Russian films he's made: Night Watch and Day Watch that are supposed to be out of this world. The action sequences and the colliding bullets in Wanted reminded me of my open-mouthed amazement watching the first Matrix film. You're seeing things and techniques that are new and fresh.

Timur Bekmambetov told an interviewer that his influences aren't from living in Russia, but in the USSR:

"(The Soviet Union) was a fantasy world created by one man, and his name was Stalin, and he created and controlled everything," Timur said. "How to dress, how to drink, how to talk, how to think. He was the producer."

Timur continued, "We lived for seventy years in a fantasy movie created by one person. It gave us a sensibility and the ability to believe different things. That influences your way of thinking."

I cannot wait to see what this guy comes up with next. He is definitely a creative force to watch.

Three and a half stars. See it on the big screen. It is totally kickass. With the successful opening weekend that Wanted has had, there is already talk of a sequel. Given the ending, that will be interesting. Only if you've seen the film, read this interesting article on how the ending was reshot. Major spoiler alert!

Wanted has boffo box office weekend

Wanted did huge business at the box office in America.

The movie made $51.1 million and

- Wanted was the biggest opening of a live action film in Jolie's career
- It turned out to be the best June opening ever for an R-rated movie, beating Knocked Up's $30.6M, and the 6th highest R-rated opening of all time
- The studio expected only a $35+M opening, so the film did much better than anticipated
- Angie proved she is a big draw: Cinemascore said the main reasons given for choosing to see Wanted were the action (67%) and Jolie (61%).

I haven't seen it yet as I was at a family reunion this weekend. Tomorrow I have a date with James!!

James McAvoy on The Daily Show

Jon Stewart demonstrates to James his effect on the ladies by having the audience scream: "Do you hear that there is no lower register there?" LOL

James McAvoy TV appearances this week

New movie coming out, and you know what that means! Press tour! For all my James McAvoy fellow fans, I thought I'd give you the heads up on James' scheduled TV appearances this week. Tomorrow, Monday 6/23, James will be on the Today show and The Daily Show. On Friday, 6/27, the day Wanted comes out, he is scheduled to be on Craig Ferguson. Whoo hoo! The two Scots will be a blast.

Variety loves Wanted

Yippee!!! The Variety reviewer loves Wanted and everyone's performance in it!

"Wanted" devilishly ups the ante to a new level in adapting violent graphic comics to the bigscreen. By confidently grafting nastily creative, high-tech new ways to kill people onto traditional dramatic themes involving professional assassins and family revenge, Kazakhstan-born Timur Bekmambetov assures himself the distinction of becoming the first modern director to emerge from Russia to carve a high profile in Hollywood. Relentless, in-your-face action and a classy cast led by a beefed-up James McAvoy and a heavily tatted Angelina Jolie combine to promise powerful B.O. prospects worldwide for Universal.

And about James McAvoy:

The diminutive McAvoy might have seemed an unexpected choice for this sort of kickass role, but the always inventive thesp proves he's got a bit of Russell Crowe in him as he brandishes an impressive amount of muscle, grit and anger. He may be one of those rare actors who can do just about anything.

Read the rest here!

James McAvoy - Wanted Photocall

Just Jared:

Originally, James, 29, was rejected for the lead role of Wesley Gibson in Wanted.

“They wanted someone geeky. I screen-tested for the movie over a year ago and they never gave me the part. Then, it was about seven months later when they went, “Look, we’ve been trying to find someone who’s muscle-y who looks good and all that, but it just didn’t work with someone like that so they said, “Could you come and do it?” They basically just said, “You’re the runt of the litter and that’s what makes it work” so yeah, and that’s why I like it. So while I’m doing all this physical work, it’s important for me to remain small. I’m sure they want me to get all big, but it’s important to remain believably geeky,” he told Comingsoon.net back in February.

New Wanted Trailer

Wanted in HD

Russian trailer for Wanted!

Ain't it Cool points us to the Russian Wanted Trailer. Man, when you don't have the MPAA censoring you . . . This trailer kicks ASS!

New Wanted Featurette!

Looks extremely cool! Love the letters from the keyboard when he quits his job!

Sex with Angelina Jolie was a Nightmare

You've got to love the Scottish Press - they are one for the catchy headline! The Glasgow Daily Record has a nice interview with Glaswegian James McAvoy, with this lovely headline:

Sex with Angeline Jolie was a nightmare, reveals James McAvoy

SCOTS actor James McAvoy has admitted he was terrified filming sex scenes with Angelina Jolie for his latest movie.

One of Hollywood's hottest young stars, he lines up opposite Angelina in Wanted, a film based on Mark Miller's explosive novels.

He plays 25-year-old account worker Wesley Gibson, who is transformed from a loser, cheated on by his girlfriend and bullied by his boss, into a dark superhero.

But despite having starred opposite Keira Knightley in Atonement and now Angelina, James says he doesn't enjoy the sex scenes, however convincing they may seem on the big screen.

He said: "It's sweaty and uncomfortable.

"My paranoia is the girl I'm doing the sex scene with will think I'm getting off on her.

"I have nightmares about that the night before a sex scene. There's no chance of getting any kind of stimulus because you're so nervous and there's all these people watching you.

"It's daunting. They're considered to be the most beautiful people in the world, and I'm clearly not. I don't think I've been hit by the ugly stick, but I'm not exactly a matinee idol."

"Angelina and I share one epic snog, which was kind of weird. Her life is mad with all the attention she gets, but she still retains a really approachable air. She's lovely, actually. We had a good laugh on a fairly demanding shoot, because it was so physical."

Regarded as Hollywood's new It boy, and having celebrated his 29th birthday earlier this week, his film star status has taken him a long way from Glasgow's Drumchapel housing estate, where he was brought up.

Famously, it was only after actor-director David Hayman addressed James's school and the 16-year-old offered to make tea on his next film that he got his first break. Four months later, Hayman rang to ask him to audition for a part in 1997's The Near Room.

No, James, I can think of a few people who would say you haven't been hit with the ugly stick!

Read the rest of the article here. Some of the stories about his childhood and early career I hadn't read before.

Two months till Wanted!

Your gratuitous James McAvoy pics of the day: