One of the reasons Wanted made $350 million worldwide in 2008 was due to the presence of Angelina Jolie, however her decision not to appear in the sequel apparently killed the project last year.

Universal has obviously been sat on the sequel wondering what to do, but now they’ve made a decision to move forward by re-hiring writers of the first film, Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, to get started on Wanted 2.

From The Wrap:

“We just always loved the ‘Wanted’ world and loved working with Universal and (director) Timur (Bekmambetov) on the first one, so we’re excited,” Haas said.

He said he doesn’t know who will direct. The writer said he’d love to work with Bekmambetov again, “but he’s a busy guy.”

“Wanted 2″ is “going to take off after the events of what just happened,” Haas said. “Pick up Wesley a few years later and go back in for another round.”

Universal’s decision to suddenly move forward may be a result of mixed success at the box office this year. The studio had Bridesmaids and Fast Five bringing in the money, but Cowboys and Aliens, The Dilemma, The Change-Up and Your Highness all under-performed, possibly leaning the studio towards sticking with proven material.

Movement on the next film could also be due to James McAvoy’s recent success in X-Men: First Class. After the actor played Wesley Gibson in 2008 he’s mainly appeared in low-budget dramas such as The Last Station and The Conspirator, but with McAvoy (and Fassbender) leading First Class to $350m worldwide it may have given Universal more confidence in McAvoy to carry a Wanted sequel.

Timur Bekmambetov directed the first film which followed a frustrated office worker who learns that he is the son of a professional assassin, and that he shares his father’s superhuman killing abilities

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One of the reasons Wanted made nearly $350 million worldwide in 2008 was due to the presence of Angelina Jolie, so Universal were keen to have her in the sequel (even though she shot herself in the head at the end of the film). However it was announced in February that despite director Timur Bekmambetov finding a way for her character to return, Jolie wouldn’t be.

This was like a bullet to the head of Wanted 2‘s production, causing it to stall, and now James McAvoy has joined the X-Men which means the sequel is unlikely to go ahead anytime soon. While promoting her upcoming film Salt Jolie spoke about why she didn’t return, and it’s a pretty straight forward reason.

From Coming Soon:

“Being dead makes it difficult,” she confirmed. “They were (trying to bring me back) but I kind of feel like if I die in a movie, I should die actually. I’m that way, and that character is not as complex as Salt. It would just be doing the exact same thing in another movie, so it’s not that interesting to me.”

Bringing Angelina Jolie back would have been purely because she is the star, and I doubt it would have worked story-wise.

While she may not be interested in playing an assassin again Jolie has expressed interest in playing Maleficent, the wicked fairy godmother who cast the original spell on Sleeping Beauty and can morph into a fire-breathing dragon.

In March we heard Tim Burton was developing a live-action movie of the Disney character, and in today’s interview Jolie said that while there is no script she has “loved Maleficent since I was a little girl, so when I heard somebody may be doing it, I was the first one to try to (get it). I would love to work with (Tim Burton), it would be a dream to work with him. I think he’s just extraordinary.”

Jolie will be seen in Salt on July 23rd, and in The Tourist alongside Johnny Depp next February.

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Last week we got the news that Angelina Jolie had decided not reprise her role of Fox in Wanted 2, and that Universal had pulled the plug on the sequel as a result. However, according to The Hollywood Reporter Wanted 2 is still alive, and creator Mark Millar recently told STV that the film “will be certainly going ahead”.

“What I heard was that there’s filming this year for a release at the end of next year, so the plot that they had will have some modifications now. Her character will have to be written out completely. We’ll see what happens, I don’t know, it changes every day. Again, things get so out of your hands with film because 300 people are involved, whereas with comics it’s just you and your artist.”

The following quote from Millar contains Wanted spoilers…

“What was funny was originally ‘Wanted’ was just going to be one movie, and Angelina [Jolie] dies at the end,” related Millar. “The idea was that it was going to be self-contained, but the movie cost $75 million to make and it made $314 million back just theatrically. At the premiere the tracking was really good and everything, and the producer came up and said ‘What are we going to do for ‘Wanted 2?’’ and I was like ‘I don’t have any ideas!’”

“So they put something together, and it was bringing Angelina back from the dead and everything,” continued Millar. “I don’t know, I think that probably just didn’t sit easily with her, because it has to be a really good reason why somebody comes back from the dead.”

“I think it’s actually more authentic if they keep her dead,” added Millar. “She was the star of the movie really, but how cool is it to have the star dead and bring in another cool character for the next one?

Wanted 2 can still be successful without Jolie, but they’ll need to get a few more names onboard as I don’t think James McAvoy can carry the film by himself, especially overseas where the first film made most of its money. I guess they’ll now be busy rewriting the script, so we should hear some stuff on the sequel in the upcoming months if they intend to release it in 2011.

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One of the reasons Wanted made nearly $350 million worldwide in 2008 was due to the presence of Angelina Jolie, so Universal were keen to have her in the sequel (even though she shot herself in the head at the end of the film). Director Timur Bekmambetov said last August that he had written her character into the sequel and recent reports hinted that Jolie would be returning (Mark Miller mentioned the script was re-written to make a few people happy) however according to The Vulture Jolie has decided not to return, which has caused Universal to pull the plug on the sequel.

As for Jolie, we hear she is now intent on starring in Warner Bros.’ Gravity, a space thriller to be directed by Children of Men’s Alfonso Cuarón from a script he wrote with his 28-year-old son, Jonás.

Like Wanted 2, Gravity had previously been set up at Universal, with Jolie set to star. But a few weeks ago, the studio put Gravity into turnaround, possibly because it’s such an artistically challenging project: Jolie would be alone on-screen for much of the movie, playing the sole surviving human member of a space mission, desperately trying to return home to Earth and her daughter. (In that way it’s reminiscent of the brilliant, little-seen Moon with Sam Rockwell. Seriously, why won’t you see it?) Now Warners has snapped it up, and it will be produced by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows producer David Heyman and Legendary Pictures.

I think Universal could have still moved forward with Wanted 2, but I suppose their big star dropping out wasn’t ideal. It’s a shame for James McAvoy. This could have been his action franchise.

As for Gravity, i’m a big fan of Alfonso Cuarón after loving both Children of Men and Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban, and i’ve been waiting to see what his next big project would be. I suppose having Jolie on-screen for most of the film can’t be a bad thing, although I hope it’s not too similar to Moon.

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Last month we heard from James McAvoy on the status of Wanted 2, and he said he hadn’t heard anything official yet however director Timur Bekmambetov would be contacting him in the near future to give him an update. Now creator of the graphic novel, Mark Millar, has spoken to IGN about the sequel and he said that filming should begin soon. He also said they had to rework the script a few times to make sure everyone was happy (Angelina Jolie, Paramount etc).

So it looks like they will be going international in the sequel. We first heard about this idea back in 2008, and it seems like a cool way to go. Director Timur Bekmambetov is Russian, so that might be a possible location.

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Last year we were told that Wanted 2 would begin filming towards the end of year, however we are now at the beginning of a new one and no filming has taken place. So what’s going on?

James McAvoy, who plays Wesley Gibson, spoke to Sci-Fi Wire and gave an update on the sequel. He says he may be getting some news from director Timur Bekmabetov in a few weeks times:

“I got a call from Timur just as the bell struck 12,” McAvoy said in a group interview on Friday in Beverly Hills, Calif., where he was promoting The Last Station. “He said, ‘I will call you in two weeks and maybe have something to tell you then.’”

The director gave McAvoy little indication where the second story would go. The actor knows only that his services may be required in the near future. “[Bekmambetov] basically said, ‘Happy new year,’” McAvoy said. “I was like, ‘Are you calling me about the film or for New Year?’ So I don’t know what’s happening.”

Apparently Timur has found a way to bring Angelina Jolie’s character back, so they may be waiting until the actress is available. One of the main reasons the film made $340 million worldwide in 2008 was thanks to the presence of Jolie, so getting her back would be beneficial for them. Even if it means delaying filming for a few months.

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Angelina Jolie has not officially signed on to return for Wanted 2, and we don’t even know if she’ll be up for it, however if she is director Timur Bekmambetov has worked out a way for her character to return, despite shooting herself through the cranium at the end of the first film.

Possible spoilers:

“If you remember from the first film, we have a recovery room with the baths of wax,” Bekmambetov told MTV News. “We know how to do this, but it’s still tough to do, because the bullet is inside her head.”

“But there has to be a reason for her to come back… and we know the reason,” he added. “I think we found the reason for her to come back.”

The filmmaker said the story behind her return from the dead still trumps all other elements, but “we are trying hard.”

“She was kind of… dead,” he laughed.

Damn those pesky curved bullets for killing off the box office draw!

Bekmambetov has said that filming should begin at the end of the year. We should know if Jolie will be returning by then.

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While at Comic-Con SHH spoke to Mark Miller, creator of Wanted, and he said that Wanted 2 would start filming in 2 months time.

While talking to Mark Millar for Kick-Ass he revealed to us that the script for Wanted 2 is complete and that they’re going to start shooting in eight weeks time.

Timur Bekmambetov is returning to direct while James McAvoy will again play Wesley Gibson.

Millar told us the sequel will revolve around the international group of assassins from issues 4 and 5 from Millar’s graphic novel.

No word on whether Angelina Jolie will be returning. Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov said last month that he’s found a way for her to return, despite being killed off at the end of the first film. We’ll have to wait for casting details over the upcoming weeks to see who will be back.

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Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov recently spoke to RIA Novosti and said that work on Wanted 2 will begin next month, and that despite shooting herself through the cranium in the first film, Angelina Jolie’s character may be returning:

“In July we will start preparation for the film. I think in the late autumn or winter shooting will be performed” – Mr. Bekmambetov said to RIA Novosti. “The shooting will take place in America, India and Russia” – added he.

“As for the character played by Kostya Khabenskiy, we’ll think about it. We might possibly resurrect him as well” – the film director said.

Wanted made nearly $350 million worldwide on a $75 million budget, and I think a large portion of that was due to the presence of a certain A-List actress, so to get her back would be great for the film marketing-wise. However, if they keep bringing people back from the dead it spoils things, unless they do it in a clever way.

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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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