By Alicia Hollinger
Hollywood, CA (Hollywood Today) 8/13/2010–
Jerry Bruckheimer and Oscar winner Nicolas Cage’s re-imagination of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” opening tomorrow on July 14, originally a 14 stanza poem written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1797 has certainly gone through a multitude of changes. The poem was adapted into a ten minute symphonic piece “L’Apprenti Sorcier” a hundred years later, and then four decades later transformed into a section of Disney’s epic “Fantasia,” and now Disney and Producer Jerry Bruckheimer bring it back to life in a modern-day CGI laden Harry Potter-esque summer blockbuster.
Disney, Bruckheimer, and director Jon Turteltaub, the team behind the “National Treasure” franchise bring us the story of Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) as a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan and his hapless apprentice, (Jay Baruchel) a geek-next-door Chuck Bartowski-esque reluctant hero. The two of them must defend the city from arch-nemesis Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina.) Balthazar comes from the world of ancient folklore, myths and magic, the world of Merlin and Morgana whereas his reluctant apprentice is the nerdy college physics genius and the two must come to terms with the relationship between science and magic.
Filmed in old-school 2D, there’s still plenty of CGI. “Acting is imagination,” says Cage, “that’s what it’s all about. I actually enjoy working with a green screen.” He jokes that he cut his teeth on “Adaptation” where he had four pages of dialogue with his imaginary brother using only a tennis ball and a gas can. Director Jon Turteltaub says “We went to Disney two and a half years ago and said this is a perfect 3D movie and they said ‘Oh that’s silly, no one’s doing 3D and that’s a waste of money.’ True story. So there you go…”
Canadian-born Jay Baruchel (“She’s Out of My League”, “How to Train Your Dragon”) shines as the apprentice Dave Stutler with a natural comedic John Hughes/Judd Apatow geek appeal. He admits to being a bit of a geek in real life, “I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t practiced shooting energy out of my hands my whole life,” he says. In the film he reproduces the classic scene from Fantasia with Mickey Mouse and the broomsticks. Regarding filling the shoes of Mickey Mouse, he says “When you’re paying homage to one of the more iconic scenes in film history, it’s like right up there with the people making out on the beach in ‘From Here to Eternity. ‘ It’s like big, you know?”
Hollywood is really about who you know—and how long you’ve known them…. Cage and director, Turteltaub attended Beverly Hills High together. Cage says “Let it be known that Jon Turteltaub is a really, really good actor. We were in the Beverly Hills High School Drama department together and we both auditioned for “Our Town” and he got the lead, he beat me out. I got to play Constable Warren which was two lines of dialogue and he will never let me forget it!”
When Cage was first considering the concept of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice he attended a play his son was in at Beverly Hills High and ran into Turteltaub. “There we were in the old seats in the old drama department,” says Cage, “watching this ‘Inherit the Wind’ production and we’re talking about doing “The sorcerer’s Apprentice” together. And so it came full circle. The whole movie has been like that, has had that magical quality which is amazing since the movie’s about magic.”
Cage says he began to have an interest in Arthurian mythology and was trying to find a way to fit it into a story. “I wanted to make a family movie that would entertain parents and their children, give them both something to look forward to, congregate together and smile together,” says Cage. “If I could do a character based on magic, not on bullets, I could entertain the family. Jon [Turteltaub] has always made positive movies that have never relied on gun play and that’s really hard to do in Hollywood – to pull that off.”
Now on his seventh movie with Bruckheimer, Cage says “No one can make a movie as exciting as Jerry Bruckheimer. You know when it’s a Jerry Bruckheimer movie, it’s gonna have chrome and gloss, it’s going to be sexy, it’s going to be big and be fun. And he put it on a fast track and that’s how it happened.”
While researching for the movie, Cage developed a fascination with scientist Nikola Tesla and discovered many eerie coincidences involving the man responsible for many advancements in electricity and electromagnetism. The movie wrapped on Tesla’s birthday and Tesla died the day Cage was born (different year.) With that in mind, Cage stayed in the Tesla room at the New Yorker Hotel in hopes of “calling up the spirits” and to see what came to him. What came was a pigeon, hitting his hotel window. Cage then discovered that Tesla had an odd passion for pigeons, so he put one in the movie to say “for you Nikola Tesla.” One day, when filming in New York, they pulled up to a street – Nikola Tesla Corner. “It’s like, this is getting weird!” says Turteltaub. Doo doo, doo doo (Twilight Zone theme…) Not to mention Cage and Tesla almost share the same first name…
Will there be a sequel? “If the audience embraces the idea, then maybe you have a franchise. If not, you don’t,” says Bruckheimer.
“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” also stars Teresa Palmer, Monica Bellucci, Toby Kebbell and Omar Benson Miller. Screenplay by Matt Lopez and Doug Miro & Carlo Bernard from a screen story by Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal and Matt Lopez. The executive producers are Todd Garner, Nicolas Cage, Mike Stenson, Chad Oman, Norman Golightly and Barry Waldman.
No comments:
Post a Comment