One of the major grumbles about the upcoming Angelina Jolie movie “Wanted” is that it’s nothing like the comic books by Mark Millar. Or, actually, there are parts of it, like the set-up in the beginning, that are like the comics, but the major thrust of the comics have been drastically altered. The comics were set in a parallel reality where the supervillains have actually killed or defeated their superhero counterparts, and those that aren’t dead have had their memories wiped, and are, occasionally, pluck out of the streets by the bad guys to torture for fun and games for old times sake. Instead of the world being run by a cabal of supervillains who have, essentially, now gone “respectable”, the movie posits the Fraternity of assassins instead.

But wait, what’s that you say, Millar’s “Wanted” was always meant to be a simple action story about a bunch of assassins called the Fraternity?

SciFiWire has this:

“What many people don’t know is that Wanted was optioned before the series was concluded,” [Top Cow spokesman Mel Caylo] said in a May 31 panel at the convention. “At that time, Mark had an idea based around a society of assassins that worked underground or behind the scenes, and that’s what the producers bought. Mark then decided to go in the direction that Earth was once populated by superheroes, but they have been vanquished, … and supervillains now run the Earth [in] five major cabals that run the whole world. They went with the original concept and based the film on that.”

Huh, that’s interesting. I don’t think I’ve heard Millar make this case himself, but then again, it’s not like I follow everything the guy does and says.

In any case, “Wanted” opens June 27, 2008, and from everything I’ve seen of it, it looks like a very entertaining action movie with some insane stunts. Should be good for a popcorn flick, nevermind the comic book stuff.