WONDERCON: WANTED

SAN FRANCISCO -- Fans at WonderCon got the first glimpse at an action scene from Wanted -- and a few minutes with its star James McAvoy.

Universal Pictures, with an introduction from director Timur Bekmambetov (who's working on the score with Danny Elfman and couldn't attend the convention), showed a five-minute clip from the film.

Although the scene wasn't completely finished, it provided an over-the-top food-store gun battle with Angelina Jolie's Fox protecting McAvoy's stunned Wesley, that leads to a wild car chase/firefight.

McAvoy, whose latest film, Atonement, is nominated for an Academy Award on Sunday night, then came out and answered questions.

Following are highlights:

* McAvoy said Jolie "really is good fun" to work with, but can be "quite intense."

"When she's working it and doing all that action stuff, she really knows how to get it done and she's quite on it," he said. "I hadn't done any action before so I was in good company learning from her. When she's doing it, she's quite serious about. She's got an incredible stunt woman who can kick anyone's ass."

* McAvoy was asked about the changes from the original material, including no costumed characters. "Some do have superpowers, but they don't have capes or leather pants," he said, adding the film capture's the essence of the book and that creator Mark Millar gave his approval.

He also hinted that future Wanted films might include more elements of the comics.

* McAvoy said that although Bekmambetov is known an action director, he enjoyed his skills working with actors.

"He asked me to always look at the conflict," McAvoy said. "And immediately I felt more comfortable with him. As an actor, I've always used conflict -- internal, external, environmental -- to find energy for portraying something interesting. Conflict is interest. He's always trying to look for conflict as well, tonally and visually, but when he says as the director, I felt very comfortable. And yet, it allowed me to do what I needed to do as well."

* McAvoy didn't think he would get the role because he wasn't 6-foot-4, tough and American. "They brought me in and screen tested me for it and I went away for a long time and they finally came back to me and they said, 'We'd like you to do it.' And I thought, 'This is good, man.'

"And I'm not perfect...Heroes can't always be perfect and I was glad we were giving it to somebody who isn't perfect. And also we wouldn't portray the character as perfect because he's a little bit of a loser. And I tried to do that in a real way."

* McAvoy also said the film appealed to the 14-year-old boy who watched Lethal Weapon and Michael J. Fox in the Back to the Future movies.

"Even though he never really did an action movie, he was so physical in all of his films," McAvoy said. He jumped over more things in Back to the Future than Mel Gibson did in all four of the Lethal Weapon movies.

"So I thought this was my change to get to jump over things. And I jumped over a bridge at one point in this film, which I'm really pleased about. Michael J. Fox jumped over the hood of the DeLorean and I jumped over a bridge!"