‘Wanted 2′ Gets Pooh Writer

Published by Jeff Leins on April 18, 2009

A new writer has been hired to pen the sequel to Wanted.  The original trio of writers has been replaced by Evan Spiliotopoulos, co-writer of Pooh’s Heffalump Movie and its DVD Halloween spin-off. You read that right.  The guy who helped write Winnie the Pooh’s encounter with an elephant is now taking on a super killer’s continuing saga to eliminate other trained assassins.  That must have been some meeting.

Then again, the original writers had done much outside of the Fast and the Furious series, which as we all know is top notch screenwriting.

Mark Millar, who wrote the original comic, has helped put together a story and has said before the new movie will pick up chapters three and four previously unused by the original.  Also, right after its release in July, there were rumors that Universal was planning a trilogy for the series, taking Wesley Gibsons’ (James McAvoy) new found assassin skills international against new fraternities of super killers.  Terrence Stamp has expressed interest in returning.

(Spoilers) I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to bring back Angelina Jolie for the sequel.  Other than the visual effects, she was the biggest draw for a film that performed quite well in the summer of 2008.  She took a curved bullet through the temple though, so it could be interesting how they plan on bringing her back for more assassin adventures.  Technically you don’t see her die, you just see her head snap to the side in the background during the action.

I haven’t played the video game follow-up Wanted: Weapons of Fate because I’m still trying to beat the Spongebob Squarepants game, but apparently it takes place five hours after the end of the film.  Wesley soon discovers that the body of Fox (Jolie) is missing.  She never reappears in the game though.  If they can find a way to curve bullets, they can come up with some ridiculous justification for her resurrection.

That being said, I think it could work without her.  McAvoy isn’t exactly the biggest box office draw, but he’s a solid talent and the sequel could work on the gunplay angle alone.