Exclusive: Timur Bekmambetov is Wanted !

Superhero Hype! spoke to Russian director Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch) about his new action flick Wanted, based on the graphic novel by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones and starring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman.

Here’s a small taste:

Superhero Hype!: I think most of the people who’ve seen “Night Watch” and “Day Watch” are really blown away by your visuals and action scenes and many had hoped you’d direct an American movie (although you’ve done some before). How did Universal and the producers end up coming to you to direct “Wanted”? Were they just impressed by your other movies as most people were?

Timur Bekmambetov: Yes, the movie was screened for the Los Angeles Film Festival and Universal studio people saw it and they called me right the next morning.

SHH!: Was that before “Day Watch” or after you finished it?

Bekmambetov: It was when “Night Watch” was screened here, but before “Day Watch” was released.

SHH!: The movie diverges from the comic book at a certain point but did you want to go and look at the comic for visual ideas or did you just want to go by the script with what to do?

Bekmambetov: No, no, when it came at first, I read the script. It was produced before I was a part of the process and then I found the comic book and that was very exciting and I figured out what to do.

SHH!: The comic book is very different though. Did you not want to confuse matters by incorporating that into the movie?

Bekmambetov: No, it was different but it wasn’t so different. The comic book was like a bible for me, and every time when I had a problem trying to understand what to do for the movie, I read the comic book again and there were all the answers. It was important for me to protect and to develop the ironic tone of the comic book and to save the unique character of Wesley was important. The mythology was changed because the story with supervillains was good but there are too many iconic characters and I don’t know who had the rights for that.

And you can read the rest of the interview here. Look for video interviews with the cast and more fun stuff next week!

Movie News

Marvel and DC

X