Scottish comic book writer Mark Millar has been getting awfully cozy in Hollywood over the past couple of years. In addition to seeing the film version of his graphic novel Wanted bank for more than $340 million worldwide,  Millar has been able to work closely with director Matthew Vaughn on the film adaptation of his comic series, Kick-Ass, which comes out in April 2010. Now, according to the man himself, Millar is planning on getting behind the camera for his very own directorial debut. According to Millar’s personal website, principal photography on the project begins in March 2010.

Ah, but you must be saying to yourself, “Rob! You didn’t tell else what movie Millar is directing. Are you some kind of incompetent fool?” Friends, if I knew I would tell you, I promise. Unfortunately, Millar is keeping his lips sealed until February when more release details will be coming out.

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Due to technical difficulties beyond my control, the digital dog ate my homework. Or, I had to write this article twice! The digital dog just sounds more light-hearted than what the second line implies. Enough about my woes with technological gremlins.

There wasn’t a ton of news to report or snark on this week, so I had to dig up enough to make this yet another interesting read. Well, at least I think it is! I do have a few snippets that might be spoilers for The Office (Guest appearance) and Lost (Possible finale shoot notes).

Shall we get on with it?

It’s almost September and that means that the big summer movie season of 2008 is finally over – but what a summer it’s been!

2008 delivered the kind of summer that superhero and action movie geeks dream of – this is the year that brought us three bonafide superhero movies: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and what was that third one… oh yeah: The Dark Knight.

I don’t think that you need me to say that Hollywood loves a franchise – but darn it – I just said it. If it’s not a franchise then it’s just not worth it, and that seems to be the case with Wanted. The James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie starrer has recently crossed the magic $100 million barrier and now Universial Pictures wants a sequel.

“Easily done” I hear you say.

Not quite. There’s a problem or two.

Beware there are major Wanted Spoilers below.

Short version: Wanted tries oh so hard to be the next Matrix, but despite insane amounts of action, falls short.

Screen Rant’s Wanted review

No doubt I’ll be taking a lot of heat for this since it seems that across the board, Wanted reviews are glowing and effusive in praise. I’ve seen many comments to the effect of “it was trash, but I loved it anyway.” While I certainly wouldn’t call it trash, it also failed to win me over.

Now don’t get me wrong… Pardon the pun, but going in I really wanted to love this movie. I didn’t go in with any thoughts that it would be high art or deep drama – just a cool popcorn flick. But even in popcorn action movies I can only suspend my disbelief so much.

There are minor spoilers related to the very first scene in the film below.

The more I see of the upcoming action flick Wanted, the more I look forward to it.

There’s a brand new trailer out which you can watch below and it has lots of new scenes we haven’t seen before. My pre-viewing opinion on this is that if you can get past the incredibly over the top absurdities in the film, it ought to be a heck of a wild ride.

I’ll be damned – I just found out that the summer actioner Wanted which stars Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy will be rated R. I’m really surprised at that – I was quite sure they were going to make it a PG-13 bloodless version of The Matrix to bring the kiddies into the theater. Suddenly I’ve got a bit more respect for this thing and it’s looking more like a movie for grown ups.

So… having a “red band” trailer for it makes sense. The trailer below is an international trailer, in Russian, but it’s all about the visuals anyway. While the U.S. trailer makes it look like kind of a hokey PG-13 popcorn movie, the trailer below makes it look much more serious (curving bullet trajectories notwithstanding) and gritty.

Again, this is an R-rated trailer with both explicit violence and some sexual content, so you’ve been warned.

Angelina Jolie is more of a celebrity than an actress. She sells more magazines and newspapers than she does movie tickets – it’s true. Has she ever been in a hit movie, a movie that had bums on seats because she was the lead?

The first Tomb Raider would have made bank… even if I was the star, and Mr and Mrs Smith was a hit because of the tabloid stories about Miss Jolie and Brad Pitt.

Jolie should have more luck with Wanted. The comic book adaptation (what else) is directed by Russian helmer Timur Bekmambetov, the man behind Day Watch, Night Watch and the forthcoming Twilight Watch (do you see what he’s doing here?).

Wanted looks bizarre in a sort of crazy Matrix way. let’s just hope that it doesn’t take itself as seriously – however from what I’ve seen that shouldn’t be an issue. The film has a pretty cool cast lined up alongside Jolie: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman and the fantastic Terence Stamp.

A new poster for the film has now been released and we can tell that the film stars Jolie with a gun, tattoos and a scary skeletal arm.

To see the poster- continue reading.

I already mentioned about a week ago that Wanted was WAY over the top based on the footage I saw at Wondercon.

Now you have the opportunity to see for yourselves with the release of the latest trailer right here.

It’s not as obvious due to the fact that you can’t see an extended sequence, but I think it’s crazy enough for you to get the point. This is the wildest reality-bending movie since The Matrix as far as I’m concerned.

Whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen.

At the Universal panel, we were treated to an entire scene from the upcoming action film Wanted.

You’d better brace yourselves for this one, folks.

The action in Wanted is going to be ultra-over-the-top. Basically I felt like I was watching a superhero movie, even though it’s actually about an elite group of assassins with no super-powers.

The sequence was not quite complete in regards to music (Danny Elfman is scoring) and visual effects, but it definitely gave us the tone of the film.

A small handful of images were released a couple of days ago for a new movie I know nothing about called Wanted. It starts Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman as members of an elite underground group of assassins (what other kind is there, anyway?) who take the son of one of their members under their wing and train him in “the business.”

I understand this is based on a comic book/graphic novel. Perhaps one of my learned visitors can enlighten me.

In any case, check out the trailer which is pretty damned cool in my opinion…