So what’s different about Wanted? Among other things, that it’s directed by a Russian horror stylist; it stars a Scotsman whose biggest films have been the quasi-art-house hits The Last King of Scotland and Atonement. And that it features, in the all-important role of uber-villain, a German best known for playing either Nazis or the pope. “I was really insecure when they hired me,” said Thomas Kretschmann, the East German-born actor whose parts have included an officer of the Third Reich in The Pianist and the title character in the TV movie Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II. “Angelina does it all—give her a weapon, and she knows what to do. Me, it was, ‘When can I start weapons training? Please!’”

For all his firearms phobia, it’s Kretschmann who kicks things off, when his character, Cross, murders Mr. X (David O’Hara), and we discover that the recently deceased had a son, Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), who is a miserable, cuckolded accountant. And yet, he carries the latent genetic material to make him the world’s greatest assassin. Who can help him realise his potential? The mysterious Sloan (Morgan Freeman), Fox (Jolie) and a team of trainers who nearly kill Wesley, in preparing him to kill others.

Did we mention that the team is part of a 1,000-year-old tradition of assassins founded by a guild of weavers? The mystery looms...

“That they were willing to cast me meant they were willing to do things totally differently,” said the Glasgow-born McAvoy. “And I thoroughly enjoyed it. When I read the script, I was impressed, but I wasn’t entirely sold. But then I saw his other films. He’s so different, so weird.” “He” is director Timur Bekmambetov, Soviet-born (in what is now Kazakhstan) and, along with filmmakers such as Guillermo del Toro and Sam Raimi, one of the leading explorers of the outskirts of supernatural cinema. His double-barrelled vampire thrillers Night Watch and Day Watch opened up all-new veins of visual mayhem en route to box-office success. And yet, despite Wanted’s defiance of physics, medicine and use of bullets that shoot around corners, he said special effects take a backseat to character. And that on Wanted, he had the same type of relationship with his performers he had enjoyed on his Russian films.

Bekmambetov said that he made the film that he wanted, although McAvoy said the ending of the film is now completely different from what they shot. “There was a massive 10-minute fight scene between me and Sloan that’s gone. The film is better for it.” “It’s an adult-oriented action-thriller. You don’t see that much in summer. That’s why I was interested in the first place,” he added.

Kretschmann is used to violence: He starred in Grimm Love, which was about a real-life case of cannibalism and was deemed unreleasable in Germany. For all the creative angles and counter-intuitive characteristics of Wanted, the big question remains ... Jolie. “She’s chilled out, a nice woman,” McAvoy said. “She doesn’t take it all too seriously. You know, we’re not changing people’s lives with a movie like this, and if you can’t have fun on the set of something like Wanted, then someone else should probably be doing it.” Kretschmann echoed his colleague: “She knows what she’s after, and she goes for the kill.”