A few weeks ago Evan Spiliotopoulos was hired to write the script for Wanted 2, which presented us with 2 questions. Firstly, Chris Morgan was already on-board as writer, so where did he go? And secondly, Evan’s previous credits include Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, how the hell did he land this gig? Thankfully both questions have now been answered with Wanted creator Mark Millar revealing Evan wrote a great un-produced action script, hence the hiring, and now Chris Morgan has explained his Wanted 2 situation to MTV.

We knew we wanted to do ‘Wanted 2,’ so we started developing a take and came up with a story that’s pretty good and develops the characters,” said Morgan. “But in the process of developing it, I also had commitments to ‘Gears of War’ and the samurai movie I’m doing at Universal.”

According to Morgan, Spiliotopoulos will provide the script for the story initially envisioned during the “Wanted 2? planning process, and Morgan will return later to consult and provide any rewrites that might be necessary.

“Evan is going to go ahead and write the story that we came up with and I’m probably going to come on later,” said Morgan. “So, I’m still part of the process, but I didn’t want to hold up the ‘Wanted’ production schedule.”

MTV then asked Morgan for an update on Gear of War:

“A draft went in and we’re talking about it now and we’re budgeting it out,” Morgan told MTV. “It’s looking incredibly good.”

“I think the gamer side is going to be thrilled with it,” said Morgan. “All the stuff you want to see, we put that in there and then we blow it out a little more, even. Now it’s just a matter of honing in on all of the character arcs and determining production types of things.”

For the uninitiated, “Gears of War” centers on the members of Delta Squad, an elite squadron that consists of rough-and-tough, chew-your-guts-out types of soldiers. Players assume the roles of Marcus Fenix, an ex-convict, and Dominic Santiago, a hardened soldier, as the squadron wages war against an insurgent alien race called the Locust Horde — a deadly collective that’s already promised to surface heavily in the film.

“It’s huge,” Morgan declared of the project’s scope. “One of the things they’re really talking about now is the budget of the film and how big of a spectacle this is going to be. My argument is, look at the underlying material. Look at the game and the scenario — the fact that the world is being taken over by the Locust, it has to be huge.”

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Last week we heard that Evan Spiliotopoulos had been brought on-board to write Wanted 2, however some people were a bit sceptical, and it wasn’t just because his name strikes fear into spell checkers worldwide. Evan’s credits include Pooh’s Heffalump Movie and upcoming Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure. This doesn’t scream ‘cool action movie with excessive bullet time scenes’ to me. However Mark Millar, creator of the graphic novel and producer on the sequel, has told fans on his message board not to fear.

About Spiliotopoulos, he added that “This guy is supposed to be really good. He did a GREAT action script recently (on an unproduced movie) and that’s what got him this gig.”

“Never listen to any commentators as they never know anything about who’s coming back, etc. It’s just speculation and 99% of the time these guys don’t have access to the people who know. ‘Wanted 2′ is being made in a very tight circle at the moment,” Millar said.

“As a producer on the thing, I’m excited. I know who’s in it and after doing 342 million at the box office we have [serious] money to spend on everything from cast to crew to script.”

All writers have to start somewhere, and it could be the case that Evan Spiliotopoulos started doing the Disney stuff just to get work, and now he’s finally got the type of work he’s wanted all along.

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Evan Spiliotopoulos. That’s what! According to The Hollywood Reporter Evan has been hired to write Wanted 2. His previous credit’s include Pooh’s Heffalump Movie and its DVD Halloween spinoff, however all writers have to start somewhere and I am sure he is capable of going from a chubby child friendly bear, to people shooting curved bullets through other people’s craniums.

Evan Spiliotopoulos, co-writer of “Pooh’s Heffalump Movie” and its DVD Halloween spinoff, has been hired to write Universal’s action sequel “Wanted 2,” based on a story by Chris Morgan. Like the original 2008 film, the in-development sequel is based on the comic series created by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones.

Marc E. Platt and Jim Lemley are producing with Timur Bekmambetov, who directed the first film and is attached to helm the sequel. Universal production exec Jeff Kirschenbaum will oversee the project for the studio.

Morgan co-wrote the first film with Michael Brandt and Derek Haas. “Wanted,” which starred Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy, grossed $339 million worldwide.

The last we heard on Wanted 2 was from Chris Morgan last November who said that the sequel “is going to be opened up to be more global”. James McAvoy will be back, although there’s no word on whether Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman or Common will return.

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