What studio execs (and writers and director) really Wanted

By Borys Kit

"Wanted" is a significant departure from its source material; the villains in the original comic-books were running the show a lot more than they did in the film.

But "Wanted" the movie is also a departure from, well, "Wanted" the movie.

That's because the ending that played on on the screen to millions this past weekend is different from what was originally shot and what was in the original cut.

The ending we've all seen (spoiler alert: don't read further if you haven't seen the movie) has Sloan (Morgan Freeman) turning up to Wesley's office, standing on the X, with a bullet from Wesley, who's in his house (as he was at the beginning of the movie), whizzing by Wesley's ex-girlfriend and ex-boss.

All looked good, and it was kind of a nice, low-key way to exit the story, referring back to what happened at the beginning of the film. But the movie's little secret is that it was actually a reshoot. In the original ending, Wesley (James McAvoy) ends up in the room with the loom, weaving and threading, and then gets into a protracted shoot-out with Sloan.  It was your typical Hollywood ending, as bullets shred everything to pieces and Wesley comes out on top.

When it screened back in February, higher-ups didn't like it because it was another shootout ending. No one, it seemed, did. Too boring. Too been there, shot that. So everyone --  the director, writers, the producers, the execs, the comic creators -- got together and came up with the ending that played on the screen.  

In other words, a studio actually opted to scrap the conventional ending for the smarter and fresher one, an ending that cost a lot less but offered a lot more. Judging by the $51 million opening, maybe they should do it more often.

Comments

[Dan Zee]

This is in contrast to I Am Legend where the producers opted to get rid of an ending that made sense with the rest of the movie and go with the typical blow-out ending where Will Smith takes out as many bad guys as he could.

I'm not saying it would have made the movie better, but the zombies had shown they were getting smarter, which the theatrical ending dismisses.

[james]

Wow, I'm really glad that they decided to reshoot this. This is one of those endings that just made an already superb movie that much better and a great feeling to leave the movie with.

love this movie!