WTF Happened to Now You See Me?

In today’s episode, we’re pulling the curtain all the way back for 2013’s Now You See Me– We want to know how an all-star cast became master magicians and fooled an entire division of the FBI, all while performing miracles on lush Las Vegas stages. We’re going to discuss what the movie is, how it got made, and even why Isla Fisher refused to return for the sequels. We’re about to get into all of it, so let’s go.

The art of the heist movie is a delicate thing. It’s not enough to stuff a handful of celebrities in an extravagant location and give them a big bag of sexy money. You have to innovate. Give your team incredible stakes with minimal odds, while inventing a charming and witty dynamic between the characters. Oh, and of course, you’re gonna want that bag of sexy money. In the case of Now you See Me, Summit Entertainment commissioned a script from Ed Solomon, Boas Yakin, and Edward Ricourt which saw 4 magicians take center stage as our heist artists. I must admit, the concept of using sleight of hand to pull of robberies is compelling, isn’t it? Well, Lionsgate entertainment certainly thought so as they picked up distribution of the film and released it in theaters in 2013 boasting a significant cast of Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harralson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Mark Ruffalo, and Morgan Freeman.

The film follows four independent magicians who each have their own specific skills. We’ve got Eisenberg’s J Daniel Atlas, your typical narcissistic stage illusionist with experience in the big show. There’s Woody Harralson as Merrick Mckinney, an excentric down-on-his-luck hypnotist and mentalist with a successful bribery scam.

Can’t forget Isla Fisher, our resident escape artist with the talent of Houdini and the looks of.. .Well, her. And then to round out the cast is Dave Franco as Jack, a street magician with sticky fingers. These performers are all great on their own, making their money the hard way but making it nonetheless. That is until a mysterious entity slips each of them an invitation to form a band of robbers known only as “The Four Horsemen”.

While the organization that recruited these magicians and whoever’s behind it remain a mystery for most of the movie- we are given some hints that some of our supporting characters know more than they’re letting on. Enter Morgan Freeman as Thaddius Bradley, a well-known magician debunker who built his career off of exposing magic tricks and their methods to the masses. While the horseman are performing on stages in Vegas, they’re simultaneously robbing banks in France which is something they don’t attempt to conceal simply because- how could anyone prove it wasn’t just a magic trick, right? That’s not gonna stop the always lovable Mark Ruffalo as detective Dylan Rhodes, from exhausting all of his resources to blow the case wide open. And the cat and mouse game is afoot.

Now, in typical heist movie fashion, the film itself is full of entertaining sequences ranging from simple pick pocketing to straight up wizardry at multiple points- and with that comes the unfortunate side of this exciting concept. While audiences love to see magic tricks and arguable enjoy them more when they’re being used to rob banks- it would seem that the writers and director Louis Leterrier may have overlooked some of the logic of these heists and taken it a step into impossible. With a high-level idea like illusionists who knock over banks is fun to play with, the film seemed to prioritize flash over function with the illusions bordering on super-human as opposed to practical magic. This made for a fun romp at the movies, bringing in more than 3 hundred and fifty million dollars on a humble studio budget of 75 million. And that’s really the thing with summer blockbusters like Now You See Me and how they differ from something like Ocean’s 11. Where both are impossible jobs, Ocean’s 11 is planted on methods that are plausible, where this movie is just having fun with the idea and counting on audiences to suspend our disbelief a bit.

Now, with talks of Now You See Me 3 being in the works, it’s safe to say that at the very least, there’s some level of interest in heading out to the movies for another adventure with our Four Horseman. But on that topic, we have to talk about the horseman that didn’t return for the second film, and will likely not be around for this next one. That’s right folks, we’re going to talk about the Isla Fisher incident…

The film began shooting in January 2012 in New Orleans and went until March. During that time, the cast trained with real magicians like legendary card manipulators Dan and Dave Buck, Eric Jones, and Darren Brown, no amount of practice could’ve prepared Isla Fisher for the shock and fear of almost drowning to death on set. According to the actress, while filming a scene in which her character is locked in a water tank. As it turns out, the chain on her cuffs got stuck which didn’t allow her to break free and reach her escape latch. This caused her to panic and nearly drown until a nearby stunt professional pulled the emergency switch to release her. Isla explained during an interview on Chelsea Lately that the crew around her was completely unaware that she was locked in and just thought she was doing some incredible acting. Luckily, she survived the ordeal and turned in a stellar performance- but she understandably declined to return for the next film in order to avoid being in any dangerous situations with escapes.

For Now You See Me 2, to replace Isla Fisher as the femme fatal of the group, Lizzie Caplin entered the production to add a layer of humor and mystery to the franchise. Who exactly we can expect for the next film, well that’s anyone’s guess but I hope to at least see most of the cast return for it.

So, has the studio heist film that is this movie managed to stack up to the classics of its kind? Well, I wouldn’t call it this movie a classic, but if you’re looking for a harmless high-concept heist, or some truly (and literally) unbelievable magic- check this one out before the next one hits screens, or stages, this year.

And THAT is WTF Happened to Now You See Me.

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