James McAvoy has agreed to take the lead role in Universal’s upcoming sci-fi actioner, “Wanted.” Marc Platt set up the series two years ago and will be producing the film along with Jason Netter and Jim Lemley. 2 Fast, 2 Furious writers Derek Haas and Michael Brandt have been hired to write the script. Russian director Timur Bekmambetov will be making his English language debut with the film.
“Wanted” is based on the comic book series created by Mark Millar and J.G.Jones and published by Top Cow. The story follows a man who discovers that his long-lost father is an assassin. After his father’s death, the son is recruited into a covert organization of killers where he becomes trained as an assassin.
The film is considered a priority at Universal and will be one of the first pictures made under the studios new plan to make cutting edge action movies that are reasonably priced. The film will have a budget of less than $100 million. Although the film is said to be Hardcore and will probably receive an R rating, Universal is targeting a large, global audience of both children and adults.