Jolie kills Wanted 2

By the time Universal's Wanted had concluded its gruelling tour of duty round the global box office back in the summer of 2008, it had trousered a more than healthy $350m. A sequel was duly ordered and the main talent from movie one looked set to return. However it now appears the assassins themselves have been terminated, with the departure of Angelina Jolie serving to shoot down Wanted 2.

As recently as the middle of last month it appeared that Wanted 2 was still very much on the cards, with star James McAvoy telling Sci Fi Wire that he had spoken to director Timur Bekmambetov about the project on New Year's Eve. Said the Scots actor (who played pipsqueak loser turned lethal killing machine Wesley Gibson in the original): “I got a call from Timur just as the bell struck 12. He said, 'I will call you in two weeks and maybe have something to tell you then.'” If McAvoy is still waiting on that follow-up call then reports today suggest that the something Bekmambetov would now have for him would be a whole lot of nothing, as Universal have apparently pulled the plug on Wanted 2. NY Magazine's Vulture blog is reporting that Wanted leading lady Angelina Jolie is responsible for the project's sudden collapse, with her decision to skip out on McAvoy and Bekmambetov in favour of linking up with director Alfonso Cuarón on his 'space thriller' Gravity being what prompted the studio suits to cancel the proposed sequel.

That Jolie was due to return at all in Wanted 2 would perhaps be something of a surprise for those who saw the first movie. Yet, as reported by Slash Film last June, Bekmambetov had already confirmed that the erstwhile Lara Croft would be reprising her role as Fox, the sole female member of the bullet-swivelling Fraternity. While Wanted 2 was brewing Jolie was also attached to Gravity, an original sci fi property that Y tu mamá también and Children of Men film-maker Cuarón had penned in conjunction with his son Jonás. However 'original' is not a term that seems to carry much weight around the Universal lot – certainly less than 'remake' (The Wolfman), 'board game' (Battleship, Monopoly), or 'inspired by a Saturday Night Live skit' (MacGruber) – and the studio put Gravity in turnaround. Warners have since picked it up, and it now looks set to go ahead, with Jolie still starring, Cuarón still directing, and David Heyman – who previously worked with Cuarón on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – on producing duty. With Gravity very much on her agenda, Jolie turned her back on Wanted 2, leaving Universal with the decision of whether to proceed minus their wannabe franchise's biggest star, or – as they have apparently chosen to do - put the kibosh on the whole project.

The studio's cold-hearted ruthlessness in deep sixing the Wanted sequel might leave fans of loom-based violent nuttiness weeping tears of salty misery, but is unlikely to impinge massively on the professional fortunes of any of the main players from the first movie. Bekmambetov now has the time to get busy with his super-powered take on Moby Dick (that self-proclaimed “genre movie for young people” also being set up at Universal), while McAvoy is currently filming alongside Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick in Vancouver, on the untitled comedy-drama that was up until very recently called I'm With Cancer.

So what about Angelina and Gravity? Well, Vulture offers the following description of that movie:

'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.'

They mention Moon as a possible point of comparison, but it also sounds like there might be similarities to Passengers, which Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness, Seven Pounds) is due to direct Keanu Reeves in. The plot of that film finds Reeves' character awakened early from hibernation during a deep space voyage, and faced with spending the rest of his life alone on the spaceship, he awakens a female passenger to act as his companion.

Jolie had previously looked set to pair up with Cuarón on The Tourist, to which the Mexican director was linked after Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck jumped ship. However von Donnersmarck subsequently rejoined the project, and it began shooting in Venice this week, with Johnny Depp as the titular holiday-maker opposite Jolie's Interpol agent. And for those folks out there who might be fearful that the collapse of Wanted 2 is going to lead to an Angie-shooting-the-shit-out-things vacuum in their lives, well there is no need to fret. She will be back in kinetic action mode this coming July in Phillip Noyce's Salt, in which she plays a CIA agent accused of being a sleeper operative in a plot to rub out the Prez. Click here for the trailer.