What Do The Critics Say?

"The over the top action thriller Wanted is sort of like a cool blast of water on your face on a hot day. Only it's not. It's more like you're getting a fire hydrant unleashed directly down your throat. Simply wants to dazzle you for 100 minutes, at least enough to get you excited for the DVD release and yep, the eventual sequel. Count me in for both please." Scott Weinberg FEARNET "Wanted is an action oriented film that gives the audience what they want and then some. The film never wavers from being kinetic and amusing." Wilson Morales BLACKFILM "The kind of thrill ride that they used to make more often during the summer season - an over-the-top action movie made strictly for adults. Keep your superheroes. Give me more of these." Brian Tallerico MOVIE RETRIEVER "With curving, clinking and kissing bullets, Wanted indeed does Chicago proud. And Angelina Jolie sells it. And Morgan Freeman is ominous. And in his body of work, James McAvoy; the star of this orgasmic summer blockbuster: becomes a man." Adam Fendelman HOLLYWOODCHICAGO "With a star-heavy cast, mind-blowing visuals and more blood than a vampire flick, this modern-day fantasy about an ages-old brotherhood of assassins is an over-the-top guilty pleasure." Robert W Butler KANSAS CITY STAR "Like The Matrix, it's not nearly as complex as it pretends to be, but it's visually stunning and relentlessly entertaining. Russian filmmaker Bekmambetov's trademark style (see Night Watch) is a blast of fresh air in an American blockbuster. With a raucous sense of style, this adventure thriller is a treat for grown-up moviegoers, stirring strong characters and intense action into a thoroughly entertaining romp." Rich Cline SHADOWS ON THE WALL

"Angelina kicks butt and the movie does too. “Wanted” is a movie that never takes a breath. It races full throttle from beginning to end. McAvoy is the star of the show as Wesley and Jolie is more of a supporting player as Fox, but her impact is what the movie needs to make it something special. Angelina is sleek, sexy and kicks butt big time. Leave the kids at home but make sure you see this adrenalin fueled thriller. "Wanted" is the one you want to see." Jackie K. Cooper JACKIEKCOOPER.COM "The stunts are drop-jaw material, but the most spectacular comes in the East European countryside, when a car smashes into a train as it crosses a single-lane bridge over a ravine, while bullets are dodged and lodged and certain death lurks on the precipice below. McAvoy is as good here as he was in The Last King of England (and that is really showering praise), while Jolie is the ultimate temptress, bewitching at every turn. Freeman brings gravitas to his pivotal role and it's always a pleasure to see Terence Stamp in a role that suits. This is great escapist fun, executed to perfection and wants to be wanted." Louise Keller URBANCINEFILE "Wanted is a virus of a movie, infecting the audience with its irresistible thrills as the nerdy hero morphs into a spectacular killing machine. McAvoy makes the transition with a credible performance. Angelina Jolie shows us her three major assets: intelligence, acting chops and beauty. Morgan Freeman is Morgan. Endlessly exciting, dramatically satisfying and entertainingly mindless, Wanted is superior fun." Andrew L Urban URBANCINEFILE "Simultaneously groundbreaking and breathtaking, Wanted is more than just one of the best films of 2008 it's one of the best action movies ever made. The direction and cinematography are almost poetic. This bullet ballet isn't for kiddies: it's a decidedly adult-oriented, not for the faint of heart flick that will stir the same kind of fervor sparked by movies such as "The Matrix" and "Pulp Fiction." McAvoy is excellent as the unsuspecting protagonist." Tyler Hanley PABLO ALTO WEEKLY

The Inside Story "Cool as hell", "unique", "experimental", "ironic" and "creative genius" are just some of the words used to describe Russian-born director Timur Bekmambetov, who hails from the city of Guryev in Kazakhstan. Bekmambetov’s vision has landed him his first English-language film, in collaboration with astute producers and an award-winning cast and crew, all under the aegis of a large American movie studio. Just how did that happen? The year 2004 saw the release of Bekmambetov’s film "Nochnoy Dozor" a.k.a. "Night Watch". The film was budgeted at $1.8 million but grossed more than $16 million in Russia alone, making it more of a hit in his own country than The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring. The sequel to Night Watch (the first instalment of the trilogy), Day Watch, was released in Russia in early 2006. Again, the film was considered low budget (costing just $4.2 million) and became a juggernaut. It grossed nearly $40 million in Bekmambetov’s home country. About the same time, executives at Marc Platt Productions had come across Mark Millar and JG Jones’ first issue of their comic book series "Wanted" and immediately thought the dark and inventive tale had huge cinematic potential. But the subject matter (a covert band of super villains who has split up the world into factions) needed an offbeat spin. They sought an exciting, creative new filmmaker who thought beyond limits and, after seeing "Night Watch", they knew they’d found their man. If Bekmambetov could create such a visually stunning movie on such a low budget, producers reasoned, there would be no holding back the auteur’s energetic point of view and dark sensibility when given a large-scale budget and the vast resources available to a studio-made film. "The cinematic experience of Timur’s work and the visual language employed by him are so unique, eye-popping and extraordinary, I knew his was a voice that had to be heard. I had never experienced visual images in that way. I thought by matching him and his ability to create a completely new world with this material, we could create something exciting, experimental and yet accessible for audiences all over the world," notes Producer Marc Platt ("Legally Blonde" & "The Perfect Man"). Bekmambetov’s Christopher Award winning producing partner Jim Lemley ("The Diving Bell And The Butterfly") recalls, "We spent two years getting from the first draft of the script to the shoot. It was important for us to push through a comfort level of what had been seen on film before and come up with ideas: no matter how outlandish they seemed on paper; that could visually blow the audience away." "Making my first film in English is not so different from my other movies. I just try to communicate with the audience, fall in love with them in a way and make a good movie for them: be a good storyteller for them," Timur claims. "Bekmambetov brings a very strong sardonic sense to his work, which was very present in all of his previous films. Not in a silly, broad way, but in a dark, comedic way that constantly undercuts the earnestness of the proceedings. It is the irony that he brings to the project, both narratively and visually, that gives "Wanted" a very unique tone," Platt explained. That black humour is also present in the project’s source material, Millar and Jones's graphic novel of the same name. Originally published as a six-issue limited series, they were only up to the second issue when Millar sold the film rights to Universal. In fact, while Millar was finishing the series, the studio had almost finished the first draft of the screenplay. With the two parties writing independently, both projects would take on separate lives. "I was relaxed about this, because the comic book and movie were two distinct entities. Regardless of what they changed, my book would be untouched. But I was pleased to see them going back again and again to the source material, and once they had my entire book in a complete form, subsequent drafts by other screenwriters incorporated pretty much all of the main material. They dropped the super villain back-story I had in the original book, but everything else works very well," says Millar. At which point then does the film depart from Millar's original story? "The first 40 minutes of the film are pretty much identical, scene for scene, to the book, and I was pleased with that. This wasn’t the case with the first draft, but once Timur was attached, he really just embraced many of the darker aspects of the material." Was there a stand-out from what is portrayed in the film? "One of my favourite scenes that was transplanted was the opening scene where, suddenly, this guy sees a dot on his head, takes out his guns, jumps out the window and starts chasing after these assassins. It’s beautiful that the way it’s actually shot is almost panel for panel like the comic book," Millar enthused. "Mark really embraced Timur. The comic is fantastic and gutsy and it has a real edge to it, and that’s what we wanted to build into our script," Platt said. Wanted is very much Wesley’s story, and at its outset, he is about as far from a comic book "hero" as you can get. He’s miserable, a doormat for the world; punching the clock until his pitiable day comes to its end: hardly the stuff of a towering, square-jawed, steroid-sized, classic leading man. And yet, the character undergoes a remarkable metamorphosis, from pathetic to powerful, embracing his legacy and allowing his inner strength to push aside the weakling. It took young Scottish actor James McAvoy (2007 BAFTA Scotland Award winner for "The Last King Of Scotland") a while to sink his teeth into the idea of playing Wesley. "I’m not used to seeing someone like myself in these roles. As a movie lover, I do complain frequently that I’m fed up with seeing six foot five inch alpha males in these roles. I’m glad they cast someone like me, not in terms of what I can bring to the role as an actor, but more because I’m not an obvious choice." "It was essential that we found an actor who was accessible to an audience," Platt says. "I knew James was a different kind of actor for Wesley, but I wanted a real actor," Bekmambetov said. "We needed someone people will identify with. Somebody who kind of looks like an everybody." The star of "Starter For 10" was drawn, not only to the character of Wes and his arc, but also to the world that the Russian director was creating. "I like action movies that don’t take themselves too seriously," he notes, adding: "I like them when they have fun." Much of Wesleys transformation comes about through his involvement with 'The Fraternity'. The filmmakers were choosy when it came to picking the versatile and talented actors who would comprise the covert society’s membership. The widely ranging characters are an unlikely bunch, each of whom has a specific talent and a unique personality: and yet each also happens to be a lethal assassin. The head of the Fraternity is the same man who reads the will of the Loom: Sloan. Having already played God twice, it wasn’t a stretch to see Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman ("Million Dollar Baby") as the master architect of an ancient society. Freeman's talent is broad, encompassing and always noteworthy. So what was it that attracted the Memphis-born Freeman who, after a stint as a mechanic in the air force, began his acting career on New York stages in the early 1960s, to take this role? "I’ve been in many, many films, and so I’m always looking to find something different to try," Freeman says. "As an actor, you don’t want to do the same thing ad nauseam. When I read "Wanted", I thought the concept was compelling, and Timur’s a very interesting filmmaker. Combine that with the rest of the cast; and the fact that I haven’t done too many action movies, and I was eager to participate." As expected, his role as Sloan is another trademark performance. "As a person, Morgan Freeman is very level-headed and very noble," says Bekmambetov. "We must believe what he says. He is a businessman, and the head of the Fraternity. He is able to engage Wesley, and so us. That was most important for Sloan." In the Fraternity, the woman who sits at Sloan’s right-hand is named Fox. There are few actresses who have the strength and skill to believably portray one of the world’s best killers. As far as the filmmakers were concerned, there was only one actress in mind: 2000 Academy Award winning actress Angelina Jolie ("Girl, Interrupted"). "Fox is stoic. She’s a soldier in search of a cause, and with the Fraternity, she’s found it. The Fraternity has shaped her life and character, and Fox has become a fully formed assassin who takes her job very seriously. And she kicks ass, too," says "Red Eye" producer Jim Lemley. "We were very lucky, and very happy, to get Angelina. She is just so solid, and such a nonconformist. She’s also a perfectionist, so in everything she does she wants to be the best. She is deep and talented, grounded and specific. She knows, every second, what she wants to do in the scene. Her viewpoint is very strong, and so you have to understand it," Bekmambetov states. "A very focused actor." And the reason Jolie took the role? "I like that this film doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s a little more nutty and has a sense of humour about itself. It doesn’t pretend to be too cool and there is something textured, European and a little funky about it," the star of the Lara Croft franchise said. Esteemed British actor Terence Stamp who played Bernadette Bassenger (a.k.a. Ralph) in the iconic Australian film, "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" was cast as Pekwarsky, an expert who fashions ammunition discharged by the fighters’ magnificent array of custom firearms. Coincidently, this isn’t Stamp’s first time to work in a motion-picture adaptation of a comic book. He etched a menacing and memorable performance as General Zod in "Superman" 1978 and the sequel Superman II (1980), and he played Willie Garvin in 1966's "Modesty Blaise" which was based on a comic strip of the time. Stamp believes he got the he got the gig with Bekmambetov thanks to word of mouth. "I was having dinner with Morgan Freeman, and he said he was working with this great Russian director. And I don’t know if they were considering me at the time or if Morgan said something, but after I got the script and read it, I just really wanted to be a part of it," says the man who played Jor-El in sixteen of the one hundred and fifty five episodes of TV's "Smallville" (2001-2008) which is about to start an eigth season on US TV. Also in the cast are: Thomas Kretschmann as Cross; Grammy Award-winning and platinum-selling artist Common as The Gunsmith; Marc Warren as The Repairman; Dato Bakhtadze as The Butcher; Kristen Hager as Wesley's girlfriend Cathy; Chris Pratt as Barry, and Lorna Scott as Wesley's work Supervisor, Janice. Synopsis

25 year old Wes is the most disaffected, cube-dwelling drone the planet had ever known. His boss chews him out hourly, his girlfriend ignores him, she routinely bangs his best firend and, Wes's life plods along interminably. There's little else for Wes to do but wile away the days and die in his slow, clock-punching rut. Until he meet a woman named Fox. His estranged father has been murdered and the deadly sexy, Fox is the connection to recruiting Wes into a secret society called the Fraternity. Their rigorous, brutal training unlocks his dormant powers by teaching him how to develop lightning-quick reflexes and phenomenal agility. Wes discovers this team lives by an ancient, unbreakable code: carry out the death orders given by fate itself. Wes grows to enjoy all the strength he ever wanted. But, slowly, he begins to realize there is more to his dangerous associates than meets the eye. Somethings not quite right. Wes will come to learn what no one could ever teach him: that he alone controls his destiny.

The Verdict "Pure escapism. Leave your troubles at the door and let "Wanted" provide you with a way to escape the real world for 110 minutes of mind-blowing fun. James McAvoy, whose recent credits include "Starter for 10" (rent or buy on DVD), "Becoming Jane" and "Atonement"; co-stars with Hollywoods hardest working actress, the butt kicking superstar from the Lara Croft franchise, Angelina Jolie. The strong cast includes Morgan Freeman, Thomas Kretschmann and Lorna Scott, all of whom are solid. In fact all the characters and those who play them are indeed solid. But it's the comparative lifestyles of McAvoy's character Wesley that provides the catalyst for much of what evolves in "Wanted". What really stands out though, is the wicked stunts, SFX, CGI work and the films outrageously dark humour. Yes, there's a huge amount of over the top action but it all adds to the experience. If you thought the trailer looked good, just wait until you see the the full production. A word of advice: See it on the biggest screen possible so that you get the full-on gobsmacking effect. Makes the Matrix look like a pussy. 4 STARS." Crew Bytes "WANTED" was .......
directed by Timur Bekmambetov ["Peshavar Waltz", "The Arena" and "Night Watch 2"]; set decoration by Richard Roberts ["Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith", "The Da Vinci Code" and "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"]; costume design by Varvara Avdyushko ["Night Watch", "Night Watch 2" and "The Irony of Fate 2"]; production design by Two Time Academy Award winner John Myhre ["The Haunted Mansion" and "Dreamgirls"]; edited by Academy Award winner David Brenner ["Independence Day", "The Day After Tomorrow" and "World Trade Center"]; director of photography by Mitchell Amundsen ["The Bourne Supremacy", "Mission: Impossible III", "Transporter 2" and "Transformers"]; original music by Four Time Saturn Award winner Danny Elfman ["Chicago", "Spider-Man 2", "Meet the Robinsons" and "Hellboy II: The Golden Army"]. Who's Who? >

James McAvoy Angelina Jolie Morgan Freeman Thomas Kretschmann Common Dato Bakhtadze David O'Hara Terence Stamp Kristen Hager Marc Warren Konstantin Khabensky Chris Pratt Lorna Scott Sophiya Haque Brad Calcaterra Brian Caspe Mark O'Neal Bridget McManus Scarlett Sperduto

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Wesley Gibson Fox Sloan Cross Gunsmith The Butcher Mr X Pekwarsky Cathy The Repairman The Exterminator Barry Janice Puja Assassin Max Petridge The Pharmacist Co-Worker Check-Out Girl Young Fox

Run Time 110 minutes Rated MA15+ [AUST] Copyright ©2008 - Universal Pictures - All Rights Reserved ©1999-2010 All Rights Reserved The Movie Pages - Protected by Australian, International, Copyright & Trademark Laws.