James McAvoy Talks Wanted
Filed under: Action, Casting, Fandom, Scripts, Comic/Superhero/Geek
A month ago, Martha told you about the upcoming movie adaptation of Mark Millar's TopCow comics title Wanted, starring James McAvoy (recently of Mr. Tumnus in Narnia fame). During a promotional appearance for yet another film (the guy is hot right now), ComingSoon caught up with McAvoy and discussed the project with him. McAvoy told them he hadn't read the comic prior to signing on, although he had heard of it, and was mostly sold on the project because he was excited at the prospect of working with director Timur Bekmambetov. In an interesting sidebar, McAvoy expects his gymnastic skills to be a big help in filling out the role, saying "there's a lot of jumping around and swinging around and doing silly things, so I can't wait." McAvoy also admitted he will need to adjust the style of the main character a bit, because he feels he isn't a close enough replica to the comic book lead: "It's difficult because the character has been based so obviously, at least visually on Eminem, I feel like I need to get away from that, because I feel that's something I'll never achieve. I feel that I'd like to take the essence of what [Mark Millar's] did and fill it."Fans, I need your help on this one. I'm not a regular reader of TopCow comics, and I've never encountered Wanted. What do you think of the casting of James McAvoy? And, more to the point, what do you think of his take on the direction of this character?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-17-2006 @ 7:12PM
deepstructure said...
haha - i should probably keep my mouth shut on this one as i got banned from craig mazin's screenwriting site because of a discussion about a scene from the script that one of the screenwriter's posted, but...
the comic itself is pretty weak, although it does break some ettiquette rules and the main character is an antihero. many of the characters were obviously based on real-life actors and celebrities, which was distracting and contributed to the shallow commercial pulpness of the comic, so it's not like there's a lot to define the character. im sure mcavoy could do this in his sleep - and he's certainly got the look for a sharp antihero-type.
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9-18-2006 @ 2:16AM
Richard Brunton said...
I disagree, I loved the comic and thought it was far from weak. There are a lot of convention breaking moments though, and some of these are done very well.
I also think the connection with real life celebrities was not just a marketing ploy but also to make a connection with reality. It's easier for people to visualise it if there are if some of the characters are representative of real celebrities out there, it almost makes it a film already - hence why I say it's also marketing. It was ready made film material.
What I do think is that it was over too quickly and the universe that was created demanded more exploration. Perhaps there are other comics that revisit this more than I know about, I did come across it by chance.
However, the biggest killer for me on this film is what you don't mention him saying and something I really picked up on. He says that the superhero element is going to be heavily pruned down - I can't say the rest because there's a spoiler in it - but suffice to say that they seem to be rewriting the entire premise of the story and pulling back from the superhero - supervillain part.
Now to me that's crazy, that's what the story is all about, and great for it.
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