Wanted's Director, Release Date Leave James McAvoy Pleasantly Befuddled
"It's brilliant. I haven't seen the film yet, so I don't know."
The early trailers for Wanted present James McAvoy as a budding action hero under the guidance of Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman -- and although jumping through the air with guns blazing may look like John Woo-style action, McAvoy actually derived his inspirations elsewhere.
"To be honest with you, I watch action films if they've got sci-fi in them, or fantasy in them, or something like that," he said. "I don't really watch the John Woo-type film where it's just action. I like it when it's tinged with concept, or tinged with philosophy or something like that, which this film is. It's also tinged with a manic, mad, weird, brilliant, genius director called Timur Bekmambetov, who's a very strange guy."
Many eccentrics flourish in Hollywood, but Bekmambetov does not seem to be doing it intentionally. "When he makes an odd decision, he doesn't make it strategically. He doesn't go, 'I'm going to make a really cool, odd, left field, offbeat decision here and that's going to mark me out as an ingenious director.' He just makes decisions that happen to be really f*cking strange and people around him inform him that they're strange and he goes, 'Really? That's interesting,' and then carries on. It gives that style that he has a truth, I think, about something real."
While McAvoy is making sense of his director, he is also making sense of his new release date. With the film moved to June, it is now officially a summer movie. "Bloody hell, is that what that means? I don't know, really. I didn't know the significance of moving it. When people say,'We're going to June, we're really excited we're going June,' [I'm] like, 'Great, that's great for you,' and then people explain the significance of it. So...fantastic if they're confident in it. It's brilliant. I haven't seen the film yet, so I don't know."
"To be honest with you, I watch action films if they've got sci-fi in them, or fantasy in them, or something like that," he said. "I don't really watch the John Woo-type film where it's just action. I like it when it's tinged with concept, or tinged with philosophy or something like that, which this film is. It's also tinged with a manic, mad, weird, brilliant, genius director called Timur Bekmambetov, who's a very strange guy."
Many eccentrics flourish in Hollywood, but Bekmambetov does not seem to be doing it intentionally. "When he makes an odd decision, he doesn't make it strategically. He doesn't go, 'I'm going to make a really cool, odd, left field, offbeat decision here and that's going to mark me out as an ingenious director.' He just makes decisions that happen to be really f*cking strange and people around him inform him that they're strange and he goes, 'Really? That's interesting,' and then carries on. It gives that style that he has a truth, I think, about something real."
While McAvoy is making sense of his director, he is also making sense of his new release date. With the film moved to June, it is now officially a summer movie. "Bloody hell, is that what that means? I don't know, really. I didn't know the significance of moving it. When people say,'We're going to June, we're really excited we're going June,' [I'm] like, 'Great, that's great for you,' and then people explain the significance of it. So...fantastic if they're confident in it. It's brilliant. I haven't seen the film yet, so I don't know."
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on Dec 28 2007 09:50 AM who is this mcavoy punk to start talking smack about the wooster? yeah james i'm sure "wanted" is going to be a high-minded philosophy wankfest, just go make some more period pieces and shut up about things you don't understand. actors, whatta ya gonna do with 'em (Reply to this) |
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on Dec 28 2007 10:09 AM In reply to this comment (#1401577) i agree that macavoy is likely a puss-bag but has john woo done anything in the last decade that's even worth noting? paycheck? windtalkers? m:i 2? dude fell off. what else can you say? (Reply to this) |
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on Dec 28 2007 10:27 AM it doesn't matter if you're an actor or anyone else (mcavoy is a good actor btw), but ater someone makes windtalkers, anyone on this planet can make fun of him/her. woo is in such a slump right now, even his video game is doing poorly. woo is a worse version of michael bay. (Reply to this) |
![]() on Dec 28 2007 11:09 AM I love me some McAvoy. Especially after watching Atonement. That library scene? You know what I'm talking about. (Reply to this) |
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on Dec 28 2007 12:01 PM In reply to this comment (#1401577) Since when is stating your likes or dislikes considered talking smack? James McAvoy is a fantastic actor. You should try to see some of his work (not all period pieces, by the way) before you talk smack about him. (Reply to this) |
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on Dec 28 2007 12:02 PM Can you guys read? All he said is that he doesnt watch action movies like John Woo's. That's it. it doesnt mean he was "talking smack" about him. "thngs you don't understand"? come on. and the trailer for this movie is better than any John Woo movie I've ever seen. although, to be honest, I havent seen many of them. but still, the guys isnt deserving of the legend status from what I've seen. (Reply to this) |
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on Dec 28 2007 12:06 PM you know i keep forgetting that john woo came to hollywood, i like to think that michael bay put a hit on him, reanimated his corpse and put the soul of some talentless hack protege in there... thanks RTers for bringing up the repressed memories of "windtalkers" and "paycheck" time to borrow oldboy's hammer and see if can't give myself a little short term wha now what was i saying? (Reply to this) |
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on Dec 28 2007 02:22 PM "He just makes decisions that happen to be really *****ing strange and people around him inform him that they're strange and he goes, 'Really? That's interesting,' and then carries on"."Hahahaha, this part had me in stitches.I worked with Russians i know what he is talking about. (Reply to this) |
![]() on Dec 28 2007 02:32 PM Well, John Woo does suck, so... Moving the release date back to June does ensure more financial rewards for Universal and perhaps it could mean the movie is pretty good. It looks very Nightwatch-y, that's for sure, just crazy over-the-top action. (Reply to this) |
![]() on Dec 28 2007 03:33 PM In reply to this comment (#1401577) I haven't seen a decent John Woo film since he left Hong Kong. On the other hand, I've been very impressed with James McAvoy so I'm pretty stoked about Wanted. Besides, isn't he as entitled to state his opinion as much as any wanker on these forums? (Reply to this) |
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on Dec 28 2007 03:34 PM ahhh, john woo. where would we be without him? he gave us such fantastic movies like M:I 2. you really gotta admire the guy. hes right up there with michael bay in terms of best directing ever. now that wanted has been moved to a better market period, what do we have coming up that looks good? any john woo movies? maybe he'll make a movie out of his game. that'll be good. (Reply to this) |
![]() on Dec 28 2007 04:41 PM James McAvoy is cute, but was pretty hot in ATONEMENT. I want to see the movie because of the director. NIGHT WATCH was a neat movie (I'm yet to see DAY WATCH). Yet, what I'm really concerned about is the release date. Its opening the same day WALL-E is!!!! (Reply to this) |
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on Dec 29 2007 01:17 AM Wanted (the comic) was awesome. Unfortunately, from what I can tell, the film doesn't follow the same plot. In the comic, all the superheroes have been killed, and the main characters are all villains. It looks like the main characters are actually assassins in the movie. They mentioned something along the lines of "maintaining the balance between good and evil," or something like that. In the comic, there is absolutely nothing similar to that. It's essentially about the ability to do as you please, as you have ultimate power when you're a villain and there isn't anyone to stop you. I would totally be excited for Wanted if it was like the book, but it's not. (Reply to this) |
![]() on Dec 29 2007 12:35 PM I'm not too excited about this movie right now, but hopefully after seeing some more trailers/clips it will seem better :P (Reply to this) |
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on Dec 30 2007 10:36 PM wanted looks like straight up ***. never has a trailer failed to excite me as much as the trailer for that film. but he seems like a nice guy. good for him. (Reply to this) |
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on Dec 31 2007 10:35 AM In reply to this comment (#1402286) James McAvoy is one of my favorite actors period. Oh yeah, I know exactly what you are talking about! I saw Atonement twice. Also check out the sex scene he did with Kerry Washington in "The Last King of Scotland". Pretty hot. He had done a lot of good movies and mini-series. Check out the mini-series "Children of Dune" and "Band of Brothers". The movie "Starter for Ten" is so funny. I have both the DVD and the soundtrack. He was fantastic in the TV show "Shameless" also. My sister-in-law in the UK sent me the DVD's for the series. I have beeen watching the re-runs on the Sundance channel here in the US. I have seen the trailers and stills for Wanted and they look really good. I sort of hate that the release date got moved up until June. I am really looking forward to seeing "Wanted". BTW I watched "Paycheck" and it was awful. (Reply to this) |
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on Dec 31 2007 12:35 PM I seem to remember reading the reason for the divergence between the book and movie. If I'm not mistaken, it's because the script was begun quite awhile back, and the comic hadn't progressed with much of a storyline yet. So they didn't willfully diverge, they just took different tracks. (Reply to this) |
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on Dec 31 2007 06:03 PM Too bad it's coming out at the same time as Pixar's Wall*E. Whoops! (Reply to this) |
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on Jan 01 2008 06:07 AM Why is everyone going crazy for what McAvoy said? He wasn't trashing Woo(even though his movies kind of suck),and McAvoy is a great actor. Anyway, hopefully "Wanted" won't suck,although Wall-E will probably punish it at the Box Office. (Reply to this) |
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on Jan 01 2008 09:37 AM McAvoy is an excellent actor, deserves an Oscar nomination for Atonement, and I'm glad he's branching out into a different genre. And while Wanted looks like its kind of been done before, it actually look excellent. I'm very excited. I love the scene in the first trailer when Angie [my loveee], driving that red sports car with the passenger's door open, slams into McAvoy, scooping him into the car. Kind of hard to explain haha. Just go watch it! On the graphic novel note [frogleg], YES the script was written after only the first issue of the graphic novel...so the ultimate storyline of the film is really only more "inspired by" the book. We'll see. But, Wall-E will divert attention at the box office. HUGE attention. Pixar is a beast you really don't even TRY to stand up to. (Reply to this) |
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