Last year, Scottish actor James McAvoy found himself a lot of new and younger fans by playing Mr. Tumnus in Disney’s blockbuster, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, and he’s been keeping busy since then, having a number of new movies coming out in the next few months. He’s definitely becoming a hot actor in demand, being called upon for a number of different movie roles.
One of the most interesting ones is playing the role of Wesley Gibson in the movie version of the subversive Top Cow comic Wanted, created by Mark Millar and JG Jones, about how the super-villains of the world band together to kill all the superheroes, leaving Wesley alone to decide which side to take.
While in New York for his next movie The Last King of Scotland, McAvoy talked with ComingSoon.net/SuperheroHype.com about the comic book movie, which will be directed by Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch).
“I’ve heard of the comic, I hadn’t read it,” he said to us. “It’s a Glaswegian writer [Mark Millar] that did the book. I’m a bit of a sci-fi fan, though I never got around to reading it. The thing that really turned me on and got me really excited first of all was Timur the director, ’cause I’d seen ‘Night Watch’ and shortly after, I saw ‘Day Watch.’ I was blown away by the first one and then even more blown away by ‘Day Watch.’ I’m such a sci-fi nut, and it’s kind of wish fullfillment to play that kind of part, but I’m not going to try to get all buff for it. I’m going to try to make him a real guy. I know that’s not revolutionary and that’s been done before in this realm, but it’s not done all the time.”
“It’s difficult because the character has been based so obviously, at least visually on Eminem, I feel like I need to get away from that, because I feel that’s something I’ll never achieve,” he confessed. “I feel that I’d like to take the essence of what [Mark Millar’s] done and fill it. What else a live action thing does, as opposed to a comic, is that there’s some things that really work well in the translation and some things that don’t. I suppose that will determine our level of success, how we grade that, and how Timur and I work that out. He’s exciting. He’s an evil genius, so I’m just puttin’ my ass in his hands and hopefully, he won’t burn it.”
“I’ve not done it in a couple years, but I’m bendy still,” McAvoy said about his gymnastic skills, which he’ll probably need for the role. “I can move around. There’s a lot of jumping around and swinging around and doing silly things, so I can’t wait.”
He hasn’t met his fellow Scotsman Mark Millar yet, but since the movie is set in America, he won’t be using his normal Scottish accent. McAvoy also said that Sh*thead, the villain made completely out of sh*t, isn’t in the current script. “It’s kind of pared back. It’s less superheroey, and it’s more about the empowerment of lives, and how Wesley does all this amazing stuff because people tell him he’s a superhero, then he realizes he just did it through belief.”
Wanted will probably begin shooting next year, but you can see McAvoy in a bunch of other movies in the meantime, including the drama The Last King of Scotland, which opens September 27.
Source: Edward Douglas
