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It’s one of those ideas that, once you hear it, you can’t believe it hasn’t been done a million times: A group of magicians use their tricks to pull off epic heists, transferring large sums from giant corporations back into the hands of the people. Or, as producer Bobby Cohen pitched the idea before the film was made: “Magic Robin Hood with a nice dollop of Ocean’s Eleven.” That’s the principle behind Now You See Me, the 2013 movie starring Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, and Dave Franco as the Four Horsemen, a group of heisting magicians.
Directed by Louis Leterrier and written by Boaz Yakin and Ed Ricourt, the film blew away the box office, earning an impressive $351.7 million on a $75 million budget. The sequel from Jon M. Chu, 2016’s Now You See Me 2, performed similarly well, taking in $334.9 million. Now, nearly a decade after the second film, cinema’s most unlikely blockbuster franchise is back with its third entry, the cleverly titled Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, in cinemas this weekend. And it’s really, ridiculously fun.
How exactly did a movie about magicians, of all things, become a true Hollywood success story? Cohen and Ruben Fleischer, director of the latest installment, have some ideas.
Always reveal a magician’s secrets
“On the most basic level, people love magic,” says Cohen. “And I think they like magic for two reasons: the experience of simultaneously being fooled and then wanting to know exactly how it was done. In these movies, we’ve been able to give the audience both.” Though a real magician never reveals their secrets, they do in NYSM, and one of the most enticing parts of each film is when the Horsemen reveal the intricate details of their stunts. It’s a clever move that encourages audiences to go back and see the movies again, to watch these…
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