Wanted (2008)
Wanted is a 2008 action film which is very loosely based on the comic book miniseries of the same name by Mark Millar. The film is directed by Timur Bekmambetov and stars James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Thomas Kretschmann, Terence Stamp, and Angelina Jolie. The storyline follows Wesley Gibson, a frustrated office worker that discovers that he is the son of a professional assassin and decides to join the entity in which he used to work, a secret guild called The Fraternity.
Production began in April 2007, with filming in the Czech Republic to later superimpose the sets on images of Chicago. Wanted was released on June 25, 2008 in the United Kingdom and June 27, 2008 in the United States, to both critical and commercial success. On January 22, 2009, it was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.
Plot
A young man named Wesley Gibson works at a dead-end desk job with an overbearing boss, takes anti-anxiety medication for panic attacks, and has a live-in girlfriend who cheats on him with his best friend. During one of his trips to the pharmacy, Gibson is told by a mysterious woman named Fox that his father was a recently murdered assassin, and the killer, Cross, is behind him. Cross and Fox engage in a shoot-out followed by a car chase in the streets of Chicago.
Fox brings Gibson to the headquarters of The Fraternity, a thousand-year-old secret society of assassins. The group’s leader, Sloan, invites Gibson to follow in his father’s footsteps as an assassin, beginning by inheriting his fortune. Sloan explains that Gibson’s panic attacks are actually the untrained expression of a rare superhuman ability; when stressed he has drastically increased heart rate and adrenaline levels that result in bursts of superhuman strength, speed and reflexes. The Fraternity can teach him to control this ability. Gibson is initially reluctant and returns to work, only to finally snap when discovering his online bank account balance is over 3 million dollars. He tells off his boss in front of the entire office and on his way out, hits his “friend” in the face with a keyboard. Fox is waiting outside to take him back to the Fraternity headquarters – an unassuming textile mill.
Gibson is then subjected to brutal training; among other forms of combat, he learns to curve bullets fired from smoothbore firearms around objects. Afterward, Gibson is shown the Loom of Fate, a loom that gives the names of the targets through binary code hidden in weaving errors of the fabric. Those the loom identifies are apparently destined to cause tragedy in the future; but only Sloan sees and interprets the names that “Fate” wants to kill. Gibson is initially reluctant about killing people. Then Fox reveals that in her childhood, a hired killer burned her father alive in front of her — and said hitman was supposed be killed by the Fraternity. She considers that preventing such tragedy is now her mission.
After several routine missions and a chance meeting with Cross, in which Cross shoots him in the arm with a deliberately traceable bullet, Gibson becomes impatient and demands to be allowed to avenge his father. Sloan grants his wish, saying that Cross’s name had come up on the loom, but then secretly gives Fox a mission to kill Gibson, saying that Gibson’s name had come up as well.
Analyzing the bullet that hit Gibson, it is discovered that it was made by Pekwarsky, a bullet-maker that lives in the Fraternity’s original base of operations in eastern Moravia. Gibson and Fox travel there and capture Pekwarsky, who arranges a meeting with Cross. Gibson faces Cross alone on a moving train. Fox steals a car and crashes it into the train, eventually causing the train to derail when it reaches a bridge over a deep ravine. After Cross saves Gibson’s life by preventing him from falling into the ravine, he gets shot by Gibson. Before he dies, Cross reveals that he is Gibson’s real father. Fox confirms the truth and explains that Gibson was recruited because he was the only person that Cross wouldn’t kill. Fox then reveals the kill order on Gibson and raises her gun, but Gibson escapes by shooting out the glass underneath him and plunging into the river below.
Gibson is retrieved by Pekwarsky, who takes him to his father’s apartment, located across the street from Gibson’s old home. Pekwarsky explains that Cross was “only a camera-click away”, showing Gibson all the photos Cross had kept of him since childhood. Pekwarsky explains that Sloan discovered that he was targeted by the Loom of Fate, so – instead of killing himself – he started manufacturing his own targets for profit, and didn’t tell the Fraternity members that they were now nothing more than paid killers. Cross discovered the truth and went rogue, and started killing Fraternity members to keep them away from his son. Pekwarsky departs after giving Gibson plane tickets, stating that his father wished him a life free of violence. Gibson, however, decides to take out Sloan after discovering a secret room containing all of his father’s weapons and maps.
Upon entering Sloan’s office after killing nearly every Fraternity member, he reveals Sloan’s deception to the master assassins present in the room. Sloan then states that all of their names had come up in the weaving, and that he had merely acted to protect them. Were they to follow the code, every one of them should kill themselves on the spot. Otherwise, they should kill Gibson. Fox, who believes in the code more than anyone due to her own experience, turns on her fellow assassins. She “curves” a bullet that kills every Fraternity member in the room, including herself. Sloan manages to escape.
Gibson, penniless once again, does not know what to do with himself. While Gibson provides a voice-over, the audience sees a young man sitting in front of a computer much like Gibson did at the beginning of the film. Sloan appears and points a gun at back of the man’s head. At that moment, the man turns around and is revealed to be a decoy. Sloan is then killed by Gibson using a long-distance untraceable bullet. Similar to the comic, the film ends as Gibson turns to the camera and breaks the fourth wall, saying, “This is me taking back control of my life. What the fuck have you done lately?”
Production
Writing
The comic book miniseries Wanted by Mark Millar first attracted the attention of Universal Studios executive Jeff Kirschenbaum, a comic book fan who sought a film adaptation that would be considered a “hard-R” and encouraged the studio to pick up the rights to the miniseries. By 2004, producer Marc Platt set up development of the film adaptation. In December 2005, Russian-Kazakh director Timur Bekmambetov was attached to helm the project as his first English-language film, with the script being written by Derek Haas and Michael Brandt. Millar did not like the first draft of the script. He explained:
“ I wanted the film to basically be the opposite of the Spider-Man movie, the idea of someone getting powers and realizing they can do what they want, then choosing the dark path. The script I read was just too tame. It just seemed a little bit Americanized. But Timur came in with his Eastern European madness, and he really made it nasty. He went closer to the spirit of the book. ”
Director Timur Bekmambetov said that the film would keep the same characters from the miniseries (which ultimately, did not happen) though the director would take liberty in adapting the comic book’s world. In July 2006, screenwriter Chris Morgan was hired to revise the third act of the Wanted script written by Haas and Brandt. Haas and Brandt returned to polish the character of Wesley Gibson, which they had established in their first draft.
Wanted creator Mark Millar saw previsualized footage for the film and said the footage had raised his expectations for the film adaptation. Millar described the first half of the film as being close to the graphic novel, and also said that the film’s ending was similar, though it was relocated elsewhere from the setting in the graphic novel. The superhero costumes in the series were also removed, with the exception of the leather attire worn by Wesley Gibson and Fox. Ironically, this had been Millar’s intent when writing the graphic novel, although he and artist J. G. Jones had forgotten to. “I wanted them to have those powers and then just wear those costumes for the initiation, but just for one panel. And then I forgot.” he said. Millar also stated he would have liked to keep the supervillain mythos that dictates the original comic in the film. Millar was favorable to most changes in the storyline, including the story arc of the Fates issuing death orders in line with the series’ original theme of predestination. Angelina Jolie asked for Fox to get killed, considering that “If she was to find out she had killed people unjustly and was a part of something that wasn’t fair, then she should take her own life.”
Casting
James McAvoy, who had screen-tested for the role early in 2006, was initially rejected because the studio was seeking an actor with conventional Hollywood leading-man looks and physique. McAvoy was later recalled, being considered the “runt of the litter” of those who tested. According to McAvoy, “They [ultimately] wanted someone geeky.” McAvoy was cast in the role in October 2006. The Scottish actor, who portrays an American in the film, worked out to improve his physique for the film’s action scenes, and suffered several injuries during shooting, including a twisted ankle and an injured knee.
Angelina Jolie was cast in March 2007 after screenwriter Dean Georgaris rewrote the screenplay to tailor the role for her. Jolie decided to make Fox seem “distant and unattainable” by having her silent in many scenes. She mentioned Clint Eastwood, who had recently directed her in the film Changeling, as a possible influence for this aspect of her performance.
Common became interested in the role due to both the script and the prospect of working with actors McAvoy, Jolie and Morgan Freeman. Common learned a great deal about firearms as preparation for the role, but said he is not a strong supporter of guns in real life. Konstantin Khabensky, who starred in Bekmambetov’s Night Watch, was cast so the director would have a familiar face around. British television veteran Marc Warren accepted to work in the movie because he always wanted to be in a Hollywood blockbuster. Thomas Kretschmann originally intended to pick up the comic series after being cast, but Bekmambetov convinced him not to. He practiced a lot of gun training to “look good and I look like I know what I’m doing”. Kristen Hager originally auditioned for Fox, but accepted the role of Cathy, considering it “fun to play”.
Filming
Location plate shooting took place in Chicago in April 2007. Several chase scenes, including one with a low flying helicopter, were shot in Chicago over two days, on Wacker Drive along the Chicago River, between Columbus Drive and LaSalle Street. Production moved to the Czech Republic later in May, scheduled for 12 weeks of shooting. Using a former sugar factory in Prague, production designer John Myhre constructed a large textile factory as part of an industrial world, the setting of a mythological environment in which looms create fabrics that weavers interpret as orders for assassination orders. Afterward, filming moved to Budapest, then returned to Chicago in August. The film originally had both an alternate opening and an alternate ending. The alternate opening, a flashback to ancient times describing the history of the Fraternity and the Loom of Fate, is available on the special edition DVD and Blu-Ray.
Eight visual effects companies worked in the movie, with the majority of work being done by Bekmambetov’s company Bazelevs. Cars of both Chicago ‘L’ and European Pendolino trains were built, and were combined with computer-generated models of said trains in the action scenes. Some of the action scenes had the actors practicing free running and parkour.
Soundtrack
Danny Elfman was invited to do the score, and accepted because he was a fan of Timur Bekmambetov’s previous films, Night Watch and Day Watch. Considering the film to be a “weird, twisted, sarcastic thing,” Elfman decided to make a guitar-based soundtrack, with the “nastiest sounds” and a “heavy metal approach.”
The main song that features throughout the film and as the credits roll is a rock song written and performed by Elfman called “The Little Things”. Initially, it was just a guitar riff, to which the producers first asked Elfman to add a beat, and then some lyrics. Then, while Elfman was in London scoring Hellboy II: The Golden Army, he received a call from Bekmambetov, asking him to make a full version of the song. “The Little Things” also received a version in Russian.
Also featured twice in the film is the song “Every Day Is Exactly the Same” by Nine Inch Nails. Played for comic relief after the initial car chase is the song “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes, and “Time to Say Goodbye” by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman plays while Fox and Wesley kill a man in a limousine.
Track listing
1. “The Little Things” – 3:26
2. “Success Montage” – 3:32
3. “Fraternity Suite” – 3:28
4. “Wesley’s Office Life” – 5:15
5. “The Scheme” – 1:44
6. “Fox In Control” – 2:16
7. “Welcome To The Fraternity” – 4:28
8. “Fox’s Story” – 3:29
9. “Exterminator Beat” – 2:52
10. “Rats” – 3:28
11. “The Train” – 3:59
12. “Revenge” – 4:33
13. “Fox’s Decision” – 2:29
14. “Breaking The Code” – 1:21
15. “Fate” – 1:46
Cast & Credits
- Directed by: Timur Bekmambetov
- Produced by: Marc Platt, Jason Netter, Jim Lemley
- Written by: Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, Chris Morgan
- Starring: Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Common, Thomas Kretschmann, Terence Stamp, Kristen Hager, Chris Pratt, David O’Hara, Dato Bakhtadze, Marc Warren, Konstantin Khabensky
- Music by: Danny Elfman
- Cinematography: Mitchell Amundsen
- Editing by: David Brenner
Other Information
- Distributed by: Universal Pictures
- Release dates: United Kingdom: June 25, 2008; United States: June 27, 2008; Australia: July 31, 2008
- Running time: 110 min.
- Country: United States
- Language: English
- Budget: $75 million
- Gross revenue: $341,000,000
Links
- Official website
- Wanted at Allmovie
- Wanted at the Internet Movie Database
- Wanted at Metacritic
- Wanted at Rotten Tomatoes
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