Derek Haas and Michael Brandt are feeling Wanted all over again.
The screenwriting duo have been tapped to work on Wanted 2 for Universal, which is developing the sequel to the hit action movie starring Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy.
The 2008 movie, directed by Timur Bekmambetov, was based on a comic mini-series by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones and centered on a disillusioned office worker who discovers his father was part of a secret society of super-human assassins. Brandt and Hass wrote the screen story and shared screenwriting credits with Chris Morgan.
The movie grossed $341 worldwide, so it wasn’t long before Universal put a sequel into development. But finding a story proved harder to crack. Morgan was commissioned to work on the project back in the fall of 2008. In 2009, Evan Spiliotopoulos was brought on board before the project quietly faded away.
Now Haas and Brandt will move the Wanted 2 needle forward, based on Spiliotopoulos’ work.
Marc Platt is producing alongside Bekmambetov. Jim Lemley, Ken Levin and Jason Netter also are producing. Jeff Kirschenbaum and Anikah McLaren are overseeing the project for the studio.
Haas and Brandt wrote the upcoming Richard Gere political thriller The Double, which also marks Brandt’s directorial debut. The duo also wrote The Courier, the upcoming crime thriller starring Mickey Rourke and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
They are repped by WME, Industry Entertainment and attorney Adam Kaller.
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Twitter: @Borys_Kit
