Timur Bekmambetov Interview, WANTED

Timur Bekmambetov bends minds with his explosive new comic book adaptation WANTED! We sat down with visionary director Timur Bekmambetov to talk about his new movie, "Wanted," inspired by the explosive graphic novel by Mark Millar. Starring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Thomas Kretschmann, and Common, “Wanted” tells the twisted and visceral tale of 25-year-old Wesley Gibson (McAvoy), a slacker who hates his life and transforms into an unparalleled enforcer of justice.

“Cool as hell,” “unique,” “experimental,” “ironic” and “creative genius” are just some of the words used to describe the Russian-born director who hails from the city of Guryev in Kazakhstan. Bekmambetov’s vision has landed him his first English-language film, in collaboration with astute producers and an award-winning cast and crew, all under the aegis of a large American movie studio. 

The year 2004 saw the release of Bekmambetov’s film Nochnoy Dozor (or Night Watch). The film was budgeted at $1.8 million but grossed more than $16 million in Russia alone, making it more of a hit in his own country than The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The sequel to Night Watch (the first installment of the trilogy), Day Watch, was released in Russia in early 2006. Again, the film was considered low budget (costing just $4.2 million) and became a juggernaut—grossing nearly $40 million in Bekmambetov’s home country.

About the same time, executives at Marc Platt Productions had come across Mark Millar and J.G. Jones’ first issue of their comic book series “Wanted” and immediately thought the dark and inventive tale had huge cinematic potential…but the subject matter (a covert band of supervillains who has split up the world into factions) needed an offbeat spin. They sought an exciting, creative new filmmaker who thought beyond limits and, after seeing Night Watch, they knew they’d found their man. If Bekmambetov could create such a visually stunning movie on such a low budget, producers reasoned, there would be no holding back the auteur’s energetic point of view and dark sensibility when given a large-scale budget and the vast resources available to a studio-made film. 

Producer Marc Platt comments, “The cinematic experience of Timur’s work and the visual language employed by him are so unique, eye-popping and extraordinary, I knew his was a voice that had to be heard.  I had never experienced visual images in that way. I thought by matching him and his ability to create a completely new world with this material, we could create something exciting, experimental and yet accessible for audiences all over the world.”

“Making my first film in English is not so different from my other movies,” claims Bekmambetov. “I just try to communicate with the audience, fall in love with them in a way and make a good movie – be a good storyteller for them.” Of his thoughts on visual imagery, Bekmambetov remarks, “It is like 100 ideas are going on inside my brain, all fighting to come out. What happens is this makes a new style, maybe something that no one has seen before. I want to put the audience in the action – in the middle – so that they go on a journey with the character, not just sit and watch.”

Here’s what Timur Bekmambetov had to tell us about “Wanted”:

MoviesOnline: Were you familiar with the Wanted comic book series?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: Before the movie? No, no, no.

MoviesOnline: It’s very different from the graphic novel.

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: Different, you mean different mythology?

MoviesOnline: Yes, why did you change it?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: Because I don’t think it’s good for millions of people to see a movie about [a person] who’s just killing people for fun.

MoviesOnline: When you were presented the project at first, was the super villain aspect still in it?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: No.

MoviesOnline: So the super villain aspect had already been taken out?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: Before. People were smart. This idea was good for the comic book, but it doesn’t work for a movie.

MoviesOnline: Was the opening sequence shot panel for panel like the graphic novel?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: No. It has the same vibe, the same ideas, but it’s different because you can’t repeat. The comic book is different. It has static pictures and you have time to think, but the movie has to run.

MoviesOnline: How does the mythology in this film compare to Day Watch and Night Watch?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: It’s a different mythos, but they have a similar idea because there is a purpose for everything, and it’s the same as Night Watch and Day Watch. We live an ordinary life and we don’t know what’s happening next to us. It’s very intriguing for people, because everybody thinks that there is something important happening next to us. We don’t know about it. [It’s like a]; conspiracy theory.

MoviesOnline: Wanted is very dark like Day Watch and has this quirky sense of humor.

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: It’s the same. It’s my language. It’s how I see things and I was surprised how consistent this project, “Wanted,” was with my previous movie. I was surprised myself. I thought it was going to be very different when I made it, and then suddenly when I saw the movie, I found that it’s very, very consistent.

MoviesOnline: Is this the next level of John Woo and The Matrix style?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: No, it’s just different. It’s very different because it’s drama driven. Drama drives the action and entertainment. It’s an ancient Greek tragedy dressed as an action movie.

MoviesOnline: Did you feel like you were creating a new visual language?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: I think every director creates a new visual language because every director’s different. And if I tried to repeat somebody, it would be unsuccessful because I cannot do something like other people.

MoviesOnline: When you were a child, did you like to draw? How did you begin to think so visually?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: Yes, I studied as a painter for seven years. It’s who I was. But I didn’t find a reason why I had to be a painter because painters are painting something and nobody really needs it, because then it’s a business of the galleries and selling art, but I didn’t understand why I had to do this. You don’t have an audience, and I like the movie business because you have an audience. Like this July, in a week (when the film opens), I will understand.

MoviesOnline: Can you talk about casting James McAvoy? It’s unusual casting, did you see him in a movie where you thought he could be an assassin?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: Yes. First of all it was very important to find an actor who’d be very unpredictable for this role, because to create his journey, to create this arc from the ordinary man to the dangerous super-assassin and warrior fighter, it was important to have somebody who would be unpredictable. And the second element was the actor has to feel the tone of the comic book. What was unique for me is its irony and its smartness. This comic book had a very unique tone. It’s a little bit smarter than other comic books, except the great character in Iron Man, he’s a great character, and it’s kind of the same direction. What’s happening in comic books now is the hero is becoming more dramatic, more real. James grew up in the same city as Mark Millar, the writer who created this comic book. He’s from Glasgow. I found that they have the same sensibility and that was very important because I was trying to protect the original source, to make it as close as possible to the original character, even if it’s visually different and it looks different, and there are different scenes, but tonally it’s the same.

MoviesOnline: Was the film shot out of sequence? James’ character is a geek, then an assassin, was it hard for him to go back and forth?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: Yeah. He’s a great actor. We didn’t shoot in continuity. We shot out of sequence. Yes, he was very good. He can change his image in a second. He’s a very good actor.

MoviesOnline: The end of the film is very different from the normal clichéd action film. What made you make that choice?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: I really believe that a movie without a message doesn’t work. I’ve seen many movies now with no messages, and there was no reason why I spent 2 hours and paid money, and why I needed it. It’s like a circus. I really believe that movies are so powerful and so influential. It needs a message, something that you want to tell people and that they can take with them in their life or that will make them come back and see it again to understand better, to rethink things. I think that’s very important. This movie is a case. We had it, and it was very important for me. The same as Night Watch and Day Watch, the same as 300 for example, it was a big event because there was a message. You can agree with that or not. It’s just a different version, but it’s something that you can think about later, and we were lucky that we had this.

MoviesOnline: People are buzzing about Angelina Jolie’s nude scene. Are you surprised it’s such a big deal?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: It was part of the story, I didn’t have an idea like “Okay, now we have to shoot Angelina naked.” No, it was part of the story, very important especially because the next scene she’s beating Wesley, and it’s a good set up for the next scene. It was appropriate for the story and for her relationship with James.

MoviesOnline: Was it a big deal for her to do that?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: No, she likes to do this. She has a beautiful body and she likes to do this.

MoviesOnline: The main actors appear to do a lot of their own stunts. Was that something you wanted?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: Yes, it was a problem for me, because James was too enthusiastic about it. He was trying to do everything himself, and it was impossible to stop him. Of course it takes more time because a stunt double can do it in a second, but he wanted to do it himself, and he was great. He was trained. He spent three months rehearsing all the action scenes, building his body and thinking about it. The action scenes are a part of the drama, and I kind of agree with him, only an actor can do it properly, because otherwise it will be too much. Also, what’s important is that he was an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances and it was good even if he’s not perfect sometimes. It feels like a real person. It’s not a machine. It’s not a CG model flying.

MoviesOnline: How challenging was it to shoot the train sequence with your actors?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: Oh they’re very professional, Angelina and James. In an actors’ school I’m sure they had these classes where you have to imagine yourself in a forest and then there are mosquitoes. It’s what they like. They’re actors. It’s in their nature to imagine the world around them and to try to be real in this world.

MoviesOnline: The sequence where the train is crashing into that crevasse involved a lot of work done against a green screen as well as CG?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: In this scene with the train we built a huge carriage on a gimbal and there were like a hundred people in a laundry machine.

MoviesOnline: Was anyone hurt?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: James was a little bit. It was quite well organized and everything worked. But every time I saw it, I was scared something was going to happen because it’s huge, a whole train on a revolving gimbal machine.

MoviesOnline: What was the biggest challenge for you? Was it the actors, the story, or the FX?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: To tell the story. The biggest challenge every time is to tell the story in an interesting and entertaining [way]. I mean all these visual effects and special effects. It’s what I’ve done all my life.

MoviesOnline: This was originally scheduled to come out in March. What changed?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: First of all the studio understood that the movie was bigger than a March or April movie. It’s just bigger. It’s a big event and I really appreciate their decision to move it because they gave me another few months to work and also they gave me the visibility (ability?) to talk to a lot of people this summer. And I think it will be very interesting [to see] what will happen in 10 days because if an audience will enjoy this movie, we will be in a different world. This kind of movie is never released in the summer. It’s a brave decision and I think it will be successful.

MoviesOnline: The editing was amazing. Did you sit right there with your editor?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: Yes. He’s a great editor. (referring to David Brenner)

MoviesOnline: Are you looking over his shoulder?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: No. I’m editing it myself usually, but in this case I invited the person who worked with me on Night Watch here because when I made an American version of Night Watch, Fox Searchlight invited him to help me. His name is David Brenner. He’s won two Oscars, I think. He’s a very good editor. It was three years ago when I worked with him and I found that he sees things similarly. He’s like me. I invited him. And also we worked together and it was very interesting to do things together because you need an audience. I believe the good editor wants to entertain the person sitting behind him because it’s very good when you’re trying to surprise each other and we worked like a team trying to entertain each other. I’m giving an idea and he’s saying, “Oh that’s great.” It was good.

MoviesOnline: The Russian and American trailers are different. Did you feel you had to tone it down for an American audience?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: Unfortunately, I’m doing only Russian trailers myself, so I don’t have the responsibility for the American trailers. I mean it’s good, but I’m not an expert. I don’t know how to sell movies here. I know how to sell movies in Russia. I still believe that Russian trailers are good.

MoviesOnline: What’s going to be on the DVD?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: The same. I didn’t find any deleted scenes. Everything we shot is in the movie.

MoviesOnline: Will you show us how you did some of the special effects?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: Yes. We used a unique technique in filmmaking in this project. We used pre-visualization, you know, when you’re making CG characters and a CG environment and creating the movie as an animation before the real shooting. Usually filmmakers use pre-viz animatics to prep the production process to know how to shoot and where to put the cameras, but we used animatics as a tool to develop the script. We created action scenes as animatics first and then we described on pages. In this, I think it was a way to make the action scenes much more entertaining. I mean much more exciting. I cannot imagine how a writer will imagine and write a lot of these crazy scenes on a page and a studio will read and say “Oh, it’s good. Let’s shoot it.” No, you cannot do this. You can only create a movie. It was maybe 20, 30 minutes of the movie we made in animatics before we greenlit the project. In Moscow, I have a CG studio and we made 20, 30 minutes of the movie in animatics and it helped the studio to make a decision about the scale of the movie, about the genre of the movie, and then the writers just use this as a source and integrate it into the script. It’s unique. I think more and more people will use this tool.

MoviesOnline: Have you done the Blu-Ray version of the movie yet?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: What’s the difference?

MoviesOnline: The high definition version for home theaters.

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: They will do this but it’s just technically… What we did we did DI, digital negative which is the quality of the film projector. It’s 4K or something. And Blu-Ray I think they will transfer and the sound is Dolby surround. I think it’s just a technical process. I never think about it. I know what we need for Night Watch, for Day Watch in Russia. There was a scene in Day Watch about the integration of the dark ones and we shot it in real time for 2 hours I think. It was a 2-hour process and we started with 200 extras. It was not extras. It was real people, famous people in Russia. We put them in one room and there were cameras shooting from different angles and we shot the whole scene with cameras in real time with actors playing at the same time like in the theater, and then we cut this scene and there were many cameras. On the DVD we released in Russia – I don’t know how it is here – we released a DVD where you can switch cameras when they’re watching what’s happening from different angles because DVD supports 9 channels or something.

MoviesOnline: What’s your biggest fear?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: My biggest fear is to achieve everything. Then what?

MoviesOnline: Were you a fan of The Matrix?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: The first Matrix. Yes.

MoviesOnline: Would you mind if this was compared to it?

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV: It’s another type of food. It’s a different meal. It’s not the same. There’s no sense of humor in The Matrix at all. It’s very serious. It’s interesting. It’s totally inhuman. We are very funny.

“Wanted” opens in theaters on June 27th.