Universal craved a sequel to Angelina Jolie’s assassination tango/loom tutorial Wanted. Unfortunately for the studio, Jolie is leaving them…wanting. We’ve just heard the actress has pulled out of the planned Timur Bekmambetov-directed sequel at Universal, and the studio has pulled the plug rather than recast the film. As for Jolie, we hear she is now intent on starring in Warner Bros.’ Gravity, a space thriller to be directed by Children of Men’s Alfonso Cuarón from a script he wrote with his 28-year-old son, Jonás.

Like Wanted 2, Gravity had previously been set up at Universal, with Jolie set to star. But a few weeks ago, the studio put Gravity into turnaround, possibly because it’s such an artistically challenging project: Jolie would be alone on-screen for much of the movie, playing the sole surviving human member of a space mission, desperately trying to return home to Earth and her daughter. (In that way it’s reminiscent of the brilliant, little-seen Moon with Sam Rockwell. Seriously, why won’t you see it?) Now Warners has snapped it up, and it will be produced by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows producer David Heyman and Legendary Pictures.

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The adaptation of Wanted should have failed for a variety of reasons: it was based off Mark Millar’s god-awful comic, James McAvoy had never been tested as a lead in an action movie, and it was director Timur Bekmambetov’s first stateside gig. But it all managed to come together in a silly, stupid, but fun ride with curved bullets and one of the best line deliveries in Morgan Freeman’s career.

The sequel has been moving slowly ever since the film was a hit at the box office, but even though Angelina Jolie, Bekmambetov, and Universal are all up for a second go-round, Millar says that they’re not quite there yet. In an interview with IGN, Millar says they almost have a good script and he believes they’ll begin shooting soon. As for the plot, all he would reveal is that they would be going back to the book to pull out the idea of other fraternities of assassins around the world. The sequel will pick up immediately after the first film with Wesley [McAvoy] now on the run from the other five fraternities’ assassins after he destroyed the U.S. frat along with its magic quilt.

Hit the jump to check out the full interview with Millar.

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“I got a phone call from Timur on New Years Eve,” McAvoy told MTV News. “I thought he was phoning to tell me what’s happening with the film, but he said he’d get back to in a couple of weeks, and he should have some stuff.”

However, before you get too excited about the potential sequel, McAvoy confessed that he’s heard very little about it at this point. In fact, he hasn’t read the script yet.

“I really know nothing,” he said. “I don’t really know what’s going on. I haven’t read a script or anything like that.”

Asked for some thoughts on a potential second act for Jolie’s character, Fox, McAvoy seemed a bit skeptical.

“I don’t know how he can do that,” he said. “I know we have a wax bath and all that, but… we’ll wait and see.”

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The 2008 action-fantasy film Wanted opened to $50 million and earned a total of $134 million, so it seemed a sequel was inevitable; now, the film’s star, James McAvoy, says he heard from director Timur Bekmambetov as recently as New Year’s Eve saying that a sequel could be gearing up shortly.

“I got a call from Timur just as the bell struck 12,” McAvoy said in a group interview on Friday in Beverly Hills, Calif., where he was promoting The Last Station. “He said, ‘I will call you in two weeks and maybe have something to tell you then.’”

The first film starred Angelina Jolie as a sexy assassin and Morgan Freeman as the leader of a centuries-old clan of assassins. McAvoy emerged as the breakout star, playing Wesley Gibson, the son of a world-class assassin. Starting out as an office grunt, he trains with the assassins to become a bullet-bending expert shot. (The movie was based on Mark Millar’s comic series.)

The director gave McAvoy little indication where the second story would go. The actor knows only that his services may be required in the near future. “[Bekmambetov] basically said, ‘Happy new year,’” McAvoy said. “I was like, ‘Are you calling me about the film or for New Year?’ So I don’t know what’s happening.”

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