Word is that Universal has pulled the plug on a sequel to Timur Bekmambetov’s Wanted. Apparently the studio had wanted Angelina Jolie to star in the sequel but she pulled out, and without her (very bankable) involvement Universal is not prepared to proceed.

Anyone familiar with Wanted will appreciate that having Jolie’s character Fox return for a sequel would require some pretty fancy pen work on the part of the script writer: at the end of Wanted, Fox killed herself with an unequivocal bullet to the head. Universal’s desire to bring her back strikes as a commercial decision not a creative one, and at a guess I’d say Jolie was not convinced by the fancy pen work. If so, good on her!

Universal’s decision to scrap the sequel has the hallmarks of a petulant over-reaction, assuming it is true of course. In all likelihood, once the bean counters get over the loss of Jolie (well, the profit they believe she’d generate), a more convincing script will no doubt surface and Wanted 2 will get the go ahead.

Of course, if James McAvoy, who played Wanted's main character Wesley Gibson, were to bail from the project because he lands the role of Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit (wishful thinking on my part), the script writers will really have their job cut out for them!