Archive notice: This article was originally published on December 14, 2010. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Balthazar Blake (NICOLAS CAGE) knows best just how magical Manhattan really is. The great magician has long protected the world from the grip of evil. But in the fight against his archenemy Maxim Horvath (ALFRED MOLINA), he needs support. He believes he has found it, of all people, in the somewhat awkward and inconspicuous-looking student Dave Stutler (JAY BARUCHEL). For supposedly average Dave has the great potential finally to become Blake’s long-sought apprentice.
In disbelief and reluctantly, Dave embarks on the greatest adventure of his life. As he begins to see Manhattan through different eyes – full of fantastic discoveries, but also new dangers – Dave learns the art of magic in a tough crash course. Time is running out, the forces of evil are gathering, and Dave must surpass himself to survive his training, save the world and win the girl of his dreams …
In the current issue of DIGITAL PRODUCTION 01/11, you can read more about the SFX and VFX in the film in an interview with VFX Supervisor John Nelson.
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Production: Jerry Bruckheimer
with Nicolas Cage, Alfred Molina, Jay Baruchel and others
DVD and Blu-ray release: January 12, 2012
distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Germany
Jerry Bruckheimer is a magician himself, because Hollywood’s most successful producer seems to pull hits out of his sleeve. In THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE, Bruckheimer worked with Nicolas Cage for the seventh time. A successful constellation, as is the collaboration with director Jon Turteltaub, who previously directed the Bruckheimer hits NATIONAL TREASURE and NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS with Cage. Comedy discovery Jay Baruchel (TROPIC THUNDER) appears as Cage’s protégé, with versatile character actor Alfred Molina (PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME) as his great rival. Australia’s young star Teresa Palmer (BEDTIME STORIES) and Italy’s superstar Monica Bellucci (MATRIX RELOADED) provide female magic.
Fun facts about the film:
Balthazar Blake’s (Nicolas Cage) preferred car is a very rare 1935 Rolls-Royce Phantom. Its engine, appropriately known as “The Merlin”, also powered many aircraft, including the Royal Air Force’s Spitfire. It was therefore partly responsible for the Allied victory in the Second World War. An exact replica of the Phantom was built for the film’s stunt sequences and became a major tourist attraction during filming in New York.
The four wolves that magician Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina) summons to hunt Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel) are real wolves named Bandit, Sierra, Samson and Takoda. They live on a farm in New Jersey.
The chrome eagle-shaped gargoyle that looks down on New York from the façade of the Chrysler Building was brought to life in two ways. Oscar®-winning Special Effects Coordinator John Frazier built a life-size, animatronic, computer-controlled replica, while Visual Effects Supervisor John Nelson and the team at Asylum Visual Effects animated a second digital version.
The colourful Chinese parade sequence, in which a dragon from the parade suddenly comes to life, was filmed for two weeks on Eldridge Street in the heart of New York’s Chinatown. More than 2,000 interested people from the local Chinese community applied for the 500 available extra jobs.
The influence of controversial and brilliant inventor Nikola Tesla and his works can be felt in the spirit and philosophy of the entire film. By an astonishing coincidence, the last day of filming even fell on Tesla’s 153rd birthday. The team also filmed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on 110th Street in Manhattan. Tesla’s state funeral had taken place here on January 12, 1943, attended by more than 2,000 people.
The Encantus spellbook weighed a hefty 34 kilos. But there were also other versions of it, including a duplicate weighing only 4.5 kilos and a waterproof, floating version for the so-called “Fantasia” sequence.
Every single page of the enormous Encantus had to be artificially aged by experts in medieval bookbinding – by rubbing with sand, moistening with tea or other methods.
The seven areas in Merlin’s ring comprise spacetime, movement, matter, elements, transformation, mind and, in the centre of the ring, love, the forbidden area. The multicoloured flames that shoot from Merlin’s ring in the underground laboratory were created by the special-effects experts using a construction resembling a giant hotplate. The flames came from metal nozzles positioned 15 centimetres beneath the floor in water tanks.
Costume designer Michael Kaplan and his team made ten exactly identical models of Balthazar Blake’s long leather coat. Blake’s (Nicolas Cage) rings were also custom-made.
A major duel between the sorcerers takes place in Bowling Green Park. In 1733, following a city council decision, this park became the first public park in America. It was used mainly for lawn bowling, a game involving balls on grass related to bocce. On July 9, 1776, colonists toppled the 1,814-kilo equestrian statue of King George III that stood in the park. They broke it into its component parts and melted them down to make ammunition.
Set decorator George DeTitta Jr. collected no fewer than half a million increasingly strange props for the Arcana Cabana set designed by production designer Naomi Shohan – including a prosthetic leg, doll heads, shrunken heads, skeletons and a “unicorn skull”.
Magician Sun Lok’s (Gregory Woo) armoured jacket was made by the costume department from more than 1,000 hand-stamped leather plates linked together row by row. There was also a duplicate made in the same elaborate way.
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