Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

'Wanted' by Mark Millar - Coming soon to a cinema near you

08:30 / 24.02.07

Admittedly, I read about this on Millarworld, so it's possible the wily Celtic fan's putting one over on his fans, again, but assuming he isn't ...

This film, due out early next year, is apparently going to star James ('Shameless', 'Chronicles Of Narnia') MacAvoy and (I'm guessing) Morgan Freeman, plus a big Hollywood name that Mark's yet to reveal. It's to be directed by the man who did 'Nightwatch'.

For those unfamiliar with the text, 'Wanted'is about a twenty-something slacker pacifist in a dead-end job who discovers that he's the son of the most dangerous man in the world, and accordingly has his eyes opened to the criminal conspiracy behind everything. So far so 'Matrix' I suppose, but there's a twist in the tale - Wesley, our hero likes it, and is happy enough to follow in his father's footsteps.

Part 'Fight Club' inspired revenge fantasy, part something to do with hip-hop, plus something else darker to do with the grimmer aspects of anal sex, 'Wanted' set the world of comics on fire when it was released a couple of years ago. Will it do the same to the movies?

(I should add that the scriptwriters have apparently dropped the superhero-related material, on the basis that characters like Shithead and Fuckwit, for all they were clever, satirical takes on well-loved enemies of Batman and Superman, wouldn't really work for a non-comics audience.)

I'm actually quite looking forward to this, assuming it isn't a joke, but what does anyone else think?

It's all right to discuss plans to up one's drinking, heavily, in anticipation of March 2008, when the film's due to hit the screens.

But according to Mark Millar, it's looking really good so far. Close to his vision, apparently, and getting closer with every re-write.

03:30 / 31.10.07

trailer is online, and looks very loosely based in the comic. felt like THE MATRIX REBOOTED to me.

Glenn Close But No Cigar

16:35 / 31.10.07

Looks like Alex's Grandma was right about the dropping of the super-villian angle, which to me at least is as dumb as dropping the Gods from that lamentable adaptation of The Iliad, Troy. Surely Wanted was written as Watchmen for super villains (with fewer pirates and owls, and more key parties and fascist faeces)?

The Fraternity seem from the trailer to be a secret organisation of assassains (Batman Begins, anybody?), and not particularly evil, or at least not in a very fun way. Freeman (the Professor) says in the trailer 'Our purpose is to maintain stability in a unstable world... Kill one, save a thousand', which would make 'em somewhere between The Hand in the Filth, and The Hand in the Marvel U. Two thumbs down on the evidence of the ad, says Glenn Medeiros.

18:12 / 31.10.07

Just wanted to be the first to say that I think this could be a truly visionary work as well as a popular success. I predict large queues of would be assassin-saviours waiting to be inspired to break free of the shackles of everyday miserable existence and impress sexy babes with snazzy gunplay. Like sheep, herded by fate...

Baaaaaaaaaa!

22:08 / 31.10.07

Surely Wanted was written as Watchmen for super villains

I think you are thinking of Sleeper.

Glenn Close But No Cigar

22:24 / 31.10.07

The Woody Allen Movie? I guess I can understand the man-in-a-sperm-suit / Doc Manhatten match, but I can't imagine who the sheep shagging gallery goer might represent. Maybe Dollar Bill?

Glenn Close But No Cigar

22:55 / 31.10.07

Ahhh, Sleeper, not Everything You Wanted to Know... Oh my.

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

04:47 / 01.11.07

Eh, I'm willing to take a chance on anything directed by the guy who did Night Watch.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:43 / 06.12.07

"Wanted" tells the tale of one apathetic nobody's transformation into an unparalleled enforcer of justice. In 2008, the world will be introduced to a hero for a new generation: Wesley Gibson.

So, he's probably not a rapist in the movie then. Although you never know.

15:17 / 06.12.07

Ingeniously, they seem to have stripped Millar's original idea of everything but the 'downtrodden average person inherits power fantasy but finds themself in danger' element, which is an incredibly original idea, just as it was in The Matrix, Harry Potter 1-5, Spiderman 1-3, Stormbreaker, The Golden Compass, Buffy, Alias, Batman Beyond...
Money well spent.

Regrettable Juvenilia

15:23 / 06.12.07

If there's any writer who deserves to have his work so brutally hacked to pieces, though, surely it's yr man Millar. He got to "hang" with Angelina, you know, and that's all that matters.

15:37 / 06.12.07

You're just jealous, you big jealous man.

22:40 / 08.12.07

I don't so much mind the supe rhero trappings getting stripped away (although a faithful adaptation could have been hilariously cool), but the trailer left me completely cold. There was nothing to suggest style at all. Was not such a fan of Nightwatch: felt like souped up UNDERWORLD, although it did have a certain insane OTT appeal.

And good for Millar, getting to hang with Angelina!

My Mom Thinks I'm Cool

17:29 / 30.06.08

am I the only one who actually went and saw it?

can I talk about it without spoiling?

I had a good time. in addition to dropping the wacky supervillain stuff and the clockwork orange rape is fun stuff, they also dropped the icky racist tones. basically, it's a lot more possible to get behind Wesley as a protagonist.

unfortunately the movie that remains isn't really that special. they add in a weird sort of superpower for the assassins and a mystical plot device that tells them who to kill, so it's not like they were going for realism. some stuff gets built up without much payoff. some stuff (mystical plot device) needed another minute or two of dialogue to explain what was going on - not that you can't have mysterious stuff in your story, but for fuck's sake, the people in the movie (Wesley) ought to find it mysterious too and ask a couple of obvious questions.

at times it felt like I wanted to see a director's cut. surely there was at least a little more explanation somewhere?

very matrixy, only a little bit fight clubby at the beginning and end, almost thrown in as an afterthought. action sequences that would have been totally amazing if they weren't mostly already done in other movies. characters other than Wesley don't get much development, even the big ones.

I laughed a lot. I went ouch a few times. I said "oh shit!" at least once.

18:21 / 30.06.08

I hear it's a decently-made, slickly directed action movie - entertaining in a popcorn way but nothing to get too excited over. I'll see it eventually; I'm in no hurry. Seems like a slightly-better-than-average adaptation. Glad the bizarre final panel/page of the WANTED comic series was dropped... I still can't believe the graphic novel/miniseries was that successful given that final image/dialogue.

08:56 / 02.07.08

Watched a streaming thievery of it on SurfTheChannel last night (I know, bad me). Not horrible, not great, fun enough, but glad I didn't drop $7 on it. There was an appealingly gleeful silliness to it in the first half that, unfortunately, got dropped in the second half when it turned into superhero fodder with cool special effects.

The Natural Way

11:09 / 02.07.08

I hear it's a decently-made, slickly directed action movie - entertaining in a popcorn way but nothing to get too excited over.

The worst kind of movie of all then. God, I can't stand the way we've just come to accept this kind of mediocrity.
Sorry, finder, that's not necessarily aimed at you but at everyone who apologises for this stuff by going 'it was alright, it had lasers and explosions - what else do you expect?'

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:49 / 02.07.08

On the plus side, it sounds like some of the spirit of the source material has shone through. Aye, who cut Peter Bradshaw's balls off, eh? I had lunch on the beach with that Angelina Jolie, and there's a real feminine icon, I'll tells ya! Gimme ma royalties check!

07:06 / 03.07.08

very matrixy, only a little bit fight clubby

This is what puts me off this film, you see. I've already seen The Matrix and Fight Club, why do I need to see a film that's a little bit like both? Especially as I'm now a thirty-year-old man, and not a twenty-one year old prick who's impressed by PVC outfits, bullet-time and 'cool' nihilism?

Also, given the current gun crime situation in the UK, I'm actually quite put off by the whole gunporn element of the film. Especially those horrible posters with Jolie and Mcavoy posing with a load of hand-cannons like models in a fashion shoot. Whenever I see that poster I want to either throw up or deface the fucker with a barrel of blood-coloured paint.

My Mom Thinks I'm Cool

08:37 / 03.07.08

it's not so much nihilism as "what are you even trying to do with your life and why are you spending it at a job you hate?" stuff. and a bit in the middle about not knowing who you are or where you come from, and having some guy punch you in the face until you figure it out.

but sure. you don't really need to see this movie. like I said, it's a generic action film with one or two interesting bits.

if there's anything really to talk about here, it might be the rather strange adaptation process. why take out the crazy supervillain stuff only to add your own weird super power gimmicks? where'd they come up with the new stuff anyway? how much was Millar involved?

was it, as I heard suggested somewhere, literally created after someone had read only the first issue? because that really is what it feels like.

well, that and someone said "uh, I don't like the way he can't complain about his boss without pointing out again that she's black" so they made everyone in the first act of the movie white just to be on the safe side.

16:11 / 03.07.08

Aye, who cut Peter Bradshaw's balls off, eh? I had lunch on the beach with that Angelina Jolie, and there's a real feminine icon, I'll tells ya! Gimme ma royalties check!

Mark Millar's actually quite angry about that review. I've wiped the details from my mind, but they're available on Millarworld, where to a certain extent the soul goes to feel sad and alone, when it's tired of everything else.

I don't necessarily believe in collective action, but, if as many people as possible could sign up to Millarworld and say, simply, 'Mark, you're a wee jobbie*' the next time he goes on about how well his work is selling, then I might recover some sort of faith in humanity.

* be advised that the board's heavily moderated. So, other things that Mark Millar might usefully be accused of resembling include 'a tolly' (don't ask) 'a clarkie' (especially not to ask about that) and 'a caramel'.

01:28 / 04.07.08

My problem with the book was that it was see through in its attempt to be provocative, with all the racism and random raping and murdering. Millar was pushing peoples' buttons, and never more so than with the final page. The flaw of the film is that they've kept the basic structure, but without the real message of the book, which is we all want to live outside the rules and do whatever we want, it's just societal structures and fear that keep us in check. It's too easy for Wesley to kill for 'the right reasons' because it lets him have it all and not have to deal with any real moral questions. The point of the book's ending was you're suckers to live within societal codes, the point of the movie seems to be break out of your ordinary life to do the right thing, or something. It doesn't make any sense if Wesley remains an essentially moral person.

That's not to defend "This is my face while I'm fucking you in the ass," that ending has its own problems, but at it's least more thematically consistent than the film's.

03:46 / 04.07.08

The radio ad local to my region specifies that there has not been another action film this good in 'light years' and therefore this film must die.

22:51 / 04.07.08

That seems fair enough.

00:33 / 05.07.08

It was an OK way to spend 90 minutes. Some goofy-funcool bits, but overall a little threadbare. They WASTED Terrence Stamp! And Angelina's Karen Carpenter arms were the freakiest effect in the movie.

All told, it was not the half-assed disaster I had been expecting since seeing trailer number one.