No, a magical healing bath will not bring Angelina Jolie back from the dead for Wanted 2

Remember how Angelina Jolie's character, Fox, was shot in the head at the end of 2008's not-exactly-supernatural Wanted? Apparently, the (silly) idea had been floating around to bring her back from the dead for the sequel. But now, screenwriter Derek Haas has confirmed that in fact Fox will not suddenly be alive again for the sequel. This, I think, is a pretty smart move, considering how she was a) shot in the head on-screen, and b) Jolie has said she's not interested in coming back, anyway. Rather than try to resurrect a dead character with a different actress, they will instead be revisiting James McAvoy's character, Wesley, four years after the events of the first movie and introducing the new young woman he'll be recruiting -- when he's stepped into Fox's role. Progress! (via Screen Rant)

• [spocko]

  I just want to mention that Wanted was one of the most disturbing movies I saw in a LONG time. I think it was because it made the whole idea of assassination the norm and how the players were guided by “fate.” on one hand it seems ridiculous, yet we you look at who the governments assassinate for real the reasons are as strained.

  • [Conspirator]

    You want to see disturbing?  Read the comic.  There was no league of assassins taking orders from a magic loom, it was a league of supervillains that killed off the heroes and then brainwashed everyone so they forgot about the heroes and villains and now the villains ran everything behind the scenes.  Anyone that was part of the league could do anything they wanted, fight, steal, kill, rape, anything went for those folks.  

• [big ryan]

  why would they want to make a sequel to such a horrible movie

  • [Michael]

    Many movies rely on suspension of disbelief to be successful. For the whole film I could not accept that swinging your arm while shooting would cause a bullet to follow an arc. A sequel to a bad movie apparently is better than the risk of making a good one.

    • [big ryan]

      i can suspend my disbelief for something like that if the movie is entertaining otherwise, but it wasn’t, the characters were unlikable and tacky, it was trying really hard to be a mix of the matrix and fight club and it failed horribly

    • [Ewen Cluney]

      Not that it’s an amazing movie or anything, but why is it that so many people utterly failed to grasp the part about how the protagonist and other characters had subtle special powers that let them arc bullets and such?

      • [Alessar]

        It was really poorly explained and there was very little to justify it. I mean the assassin in the opening seemed to be doing something quasi-telekinetic but MacAvoy’s character was shown parkour not THAT.

        I think part of the problem is that the director does not like magic very much. In a commentary in some interview he gave around the time Night Watch was finally released over here he said something about wanting to minimize the magic because it wasn’t his cup of tea. This perhaps explains why the Wanted story was changed from a world where all the comic-type super villains teamed up and all the magical villains combined power to cast a reality-warp spell to make the world think it was “mundane” and that all the heroes were just actors who had played comic book heroes on TV and in film, while the actual villains became corporate cabal secret overlords.

        So yeah. I really do NOT need a sequel to such a terrible, tedious movie. Frankly Angelina Jolie managed to wring out the only interesting character material in the whole film so I can see why she’s just done.

• [Florian Bösch]

  Uhm, you know the magical healing bath cured pretty much everything else. So headshots should really be a no problem. Just a bit of water, some herbs and a bit of wax dribbled on top and she’ll be good as new. Well, minus a brain, but that shouldn’t be a serious impediment for the character anyway.

  That reminds me, there’s a re-boot of Munsters coming :)

• [Martin Grosser]

  Oh, how good WANTED *could* have been had they not chickened out and dropped the main premise and most of the back-story set up in the original comic series…

• [JhmL]

  Please don’t spoil films in headers. 

  • [spejic]

    If Jamie’s title is the reason you never see the movie, you should thank her.

  • [intheshadowofleaves]

    The statute of limitations on spoilers expires after about 2 months. This is a 4 year old film. Objection overruled.

    • [JhmL]

      Nonsense. It is always bad form to spoil film plots without warning, no matter the films age. Unless you happen to be a creature that has managed to see every film ever made, there will be spoilers. 

• [Martyn Drake]

  This is the one film I’d genuinely advocate rebooting and stick with Millar’s original vision of evil supervillians rather than even THINKING of attempting a sequel to the first film. The comic is a fantastic piece of work.

  I’d have Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn on writing duties for the reboot and possibly Vaughn himself on directing duties. Although I hear Millar has an interest in directing films, so a reboot of Wanted may be a good vehicle for him to start.