Derek Haas and Michael Brandt are feeling Wanted all over again.

The screenwriting duo have been tapped to work on Wanted 2 for Universal, which is developing the sequel to the hit action movie starring Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy.

The 2008 movie, directed by Timur Bekmambetov, was based on a comic mini-series by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones and centered on a disillusioned office worker who discovers his father was part of a secret society of super-human assassins. Brandt and Hass wrote the screen story and shared screenwriting credits with Chris Morgan.

The movie grossed $341 worldwide, so it wasn’t long before Universal put a sequel into development. But finding a story proved harder to crack. Morgan was commissioned to work on the project back in the fall of 2008. In 2009, Evan Spiliotopoulos was brought on board before the project quietly faded away.

Now Haas and Brandt will move the Wanted 2 needle forward, based on Spiliotopoulos’ work.

Marc Platt is producing alongside Bekmambetov. Jim Lemley, Ken Levin and Jason Netter also are producing. Jeff Kirschenbaum and Anikah McLaren are overseeing the project for the studio.

Haas and Brandt wrote the upcoming Richard Gere political thriller The Double, which also marks Brandt’s directorial debut. The duo also wrote The Courier, the upcoming crime thriller starring Mickey Rourke and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

They are repped by WME, Industry Entertainment and attorney Adam Kaller.

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Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy are about to go head-to-head in summer box office competition with their respective franchises Kung Fu Panda and X-Men, which are due out within a week of each other, but rumors are starting to swirl that the blockbuster that once housed them both – the 2008 action hit Wanted – may still get a sequel.

Jim Lemley, the producing partner of Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov, recently told MTV that they’d still like to tell more stories from that gun-toting universe (adapted from Mark Millar’s comic book series) and have not ruled out Jolie’s participation. The actress, however, has said in the past that she would not return for potential sequels, so Lemley let MTV know that while it would be preferred that she be on board, the story they’re circling is big enough that the franchise could move forward without her.

But would Bekmambetov direct? He’s currently wrapped up in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, a cheeky adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s mash-up novel with Benjamin Walker, Rufus Sewell and Dominic Cooper. Yet it sounds like a Wanted sequel – if it happens – is far enough away that Bekmambetov could return to the franchise is he chooses. And if they can lure Jolie and McAvoy back to their roles, all the better.

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“Wanted 2? I don’t know what’s happening. I know that the script came out a while back which I don’t think they were happy with in the end. I don’t think Angelina [Jolie] was up for doing it. I mean, that is kind of why she got herself killed in the first one.

“I think that if you are going to go without the guaranteed box office draw of Angelina then you need to have an amazing script and an amazing story. I think the studio is keen to make it, and we really want to make it, but we want to make it if it’s right and when it’s right, and that might not be ever.

“The reason I did the first film was because I thought it was a really good acting role, and no matter whether it made lots of money or ultimately was a good action movie, I knew I’d have a good time doing it as an actor. I would hope that would be the case in the second one. My worry was always that if we do a sequel, where is the character going to go? We hung our movie off this guy’s life journey, and he’s had that life journey now, so what do you hang the movie off?

“Maybe they’ll do it in the future with a whole new kid – a new lead character. And the premise of the Wanted movies is how becoming an assassin changed my life.

“But it was a good time, and a good movie, but in a way, I’m glad that not everything has to be a franchise.”

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More Wanted 2 rumors.

Keira Knightly and Kristen Stewart are said to be fighting it out for the lead role in the Wanted sequel, the creatively named Wanted 2.

Keira is said to be the first choice for the action role opposite James McAvoy, who she starred with in Atonement.

A movie insider said, “As soon as Angelina declared herself out of Wanted 2, Keira was in the running.”

“The producers feel she and James McAvoy can bring the same kind of chemistry to the project as they had on Atonement. Kristen is the other choice but it would be very much a different dynamic.”

The insider added, “One of them look certain to get the role.”

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Some Wanted 2 rumors. Better than no news.

Kristen Stewart is a Wanted woman!

Sources tell E! News that the studio and director behind the sequel to Wanted have expressed interest in snagging K.Stew to follow in Angelina Jolie’s footsteps as the female lead, starring alongside James McAvoy.

While details are still pretty scarce, Stewart’s character would be a young, ass-kicking assassin in the Fraternity.

So is Stewart in, and Angie out?

It’s too early to tell if the film is even gonna happen, but it’s not looking good for A.

Our insider says Kristen was approached to fill Jolie’s hot-woman void in the franchise and met at least once with Timur Bekmambetov, the director of the series.

However, Angelina’s participation in the project is still up in the air.

While her character died in the first installment of the film, Bekmambetov told MTV that he would bring her back in some capacity, in the sequel.

Only problem is A.J. reportedly backed out of the film. We hear details (aka money and exactly how much time she’d need to give to the flick) were never worked out, which is why Angelina is out, for now—but she could possibly make a cameo if the film actually happens.

So can Kristen save the franchise?

Our dishy source says the Stewart-McAvoy version of the project might not come to fruition, but it remains a slim possibility—and wouldn’t it be damn hot! (Sure would be a lot happier news than that horrible fake car accident stuff which had K.Stew fans in a tizzy yesterday.)

Kristen is set to start filming Breaking Dawn possibly as early as October, while the Wanted follow-up was originally slated to start shooting around the end of August.

No production date has been set in stone for the final Twilight flick(s), which is making it difficult, we’re told, for many of the actors involved in the vampire franchise to figure out their schedule allowed for outside projects. Anyone remember Rachelle Lefevre?

Be careful before you sign up for other projects, dearies!

Neither Bekmambetov nor a rep for Stewart responded to E!’s request for comment. While no offer was officially given to Kristen, word is that Bekmambetov is—for now—looking at other projects for the fall, given the scheduling conflicts.

Bummer! Nobody kicks ass like K.Stew.

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Yes, we know, when it comes to Wanted 2, the most asked question is – did Angelina Jolie kill it?

So, maybe the best thing that author Mark Millar did, is an interview with MTV, where he confirmed that Universal and director Timur Bekmambetov are planning to move on without Jolie and put together the film
anyway with a new character from the comic book in place of Jolie.

Check what Millar actually said:

“They killed off the most recognizable character, but I thought it was great to do that. It was so ballsy to kill off the one person you didn’t expect to die.”

Yeah, well who knows, maybe that was a nice move, but now, there might be another problem. What’s going to happen to a sequel, without Angelina Jolie?

We all know that her name in the whole thing was a kind of guaranty for movie success, but what now? Seems like Millar doesn’t see the problem, since he said: “…what they’re talking about is just moving on with the story and doing it properly. Just bringing in another cool character as this world opens up with all the different fraternities out there all across the world. This could change at any moment, but the last I heard two weeks ago, was that was the plan moving forward.”

And this is an interesting moment, indeed, especially if you remember what Angelina Jolie had to say about the Wanted role:

“In the original, she doesn’t kill herself, I actually changed the ending. I said, ‘If she was to find out she had killed people unjustly and was a part of something that wasn’t fair, then she should take her own life.”

That could be the main reason why most fans are happy seeing Jolie’s character Fox not return anyway simply because, well, she died, right?

Well, what do you think? What another strong female lead you expect to see, or are you one of those who hoped Angelina Jolie will be the part of this sequel?

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Wanted creator Mark Millar has told STV that a sequel to the blockbuster movie will go ahead this year despite the non-involvement of the first movie’s lead actress Angelina Jolie.

According to New York Magazine she has dropped plans to reprise her role as Fox in the Wanted franchise to star in Alfonso Cuarón’s space thriller Gravity, but Millar explained that that won’t torpedo plans for the sequel to be shot for release next year. (Be warned, spoilers for the original movie lie ahead…)

Millar said: “Wanted 2 will be certainly going ahead, because the first one made too much money for them not to do a sequel.

“What was funny was originally Wanted was just going to be one movie, and Angelina dies at the end, Morgan Freeman dies at the end – sorry to anyone who hasn’t bought it yet…

“The idea was that it was going to be self-contained, but the movie cost $75 million to make and it made $314 million back just theatrically. At the premiere the tracking was really good and everything, and the producer came up and said ‘What are we going to do for Wanted 2?’ and I was like ‘I don’t have any ideas!’

“So they put something together, and it was bringing Angelina back from the dead and everything. I don’t know, I think that probably just didn’t sit easily with her, because it has to be a really good reason why somebody comes back from the dead.”

The 2008 film adaptation of Wanted, which was based on Millar comic book miniseries, starred Scottish actor James McAvoy as a frustrated office worker who learned that he is the son of a professional assassin and shared his superhuman killing abilities.

Millar added: “I think it’s actually more authentic if they keep her dead. She was the star of the movie really, but how cool is it to have the star dead and bring in another cool character for the next one.

“What I heard was that there’s filming this year for a release at the end of next year, so the plot that they had will have some modifications now, her character will have to be written out completely.

“We’ll see what happens, I don’t know, it changes every day. Again, things get so out of your hands with film because 300 people are involved, whereas with comics it’s just you and your artist.”

Watch video here

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