Walt Disney Studios, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turteltaub, present The Sorcerer’s Apprentice -- a magical adventure about a sorcerer and his apprentice, who are swept into the centre of an ancient conflict between good and evil.
The films stars Academy Award® winner Nicolas Cage (National Treasure) as Balthazar Blake, a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan who is trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath played by Alfred Molina (The Pink Panther 2).
The film co-stars Jay Baruchel (Tropic Thunder) as Dave Stutler, Balthazar’s reluctant apprentice and Teresa Palmer (Bedtime Stories) as his love interest, Becky.
Turteltaub has directed several successful movies including National Treasure, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, The Kid, Phenomenon, While You Were Sleeping and Cool Runnings. He produced the CBS television series, Jericho and also directed the first three episodes, "Pilot" and "Fallout".
-How do you find directing actors through special effects scenes?
I’ve done movies that had a lot of effects in them without having someone on set.
You could shoot all this without anybody there and then they can fix it later, it’s just a lot harder and a lot more expensive. Having the actors here helps you know what to do to save you all that time and money.
- How about the stunts?
Stunts pose a bit of a dilemma. If someone gets hurt, you’ve done it wrong. If it’s not spectacular, you’ve done it wrong. You’re looking for that middle space where it’s safe and it’s special, and to do that, you have to trust other people.
There are moments where stunt coordinators are too safe, and you have to push a little bit. Those are terrifying moments.
- It is difficult directing when the star of the film is also a producer?
In this case, by Nicolas Cage bringing the movie into Jerry’s universe, he’s seeding that responsibility to Jerry, so Jerry takes on that 800-pound gorilla producer job, I keep my 800-pound gorilla director job and Nic keeps his job as the star.
Acting is too full-time of a job for Nic to be worrying about little things, so that stuff is not a problem.
- Nicolas Cage told us one of the inspirations for this film was The Wizard of Oz. Is that the same for you?
He’s had a bunch of fun inspirations using films from The Wizard of Oz to Willy Wonka. Willy Wonka is a closer version of a magician in my head. In Willy Wonka, you realize that through a child’s eye, it’s magic.
To a grown-up eye, it’s really just science, and that debate rages on the set. How much of magic is supernatural and how much is science? I’m trying to keep it in the realm of 'you can bring whatever your personal philosophy is' to explain it.
- Is shooting in New York imperative to this film?
Yes. New York City gives you a certain feeling when you are here and you will definitely feel that in this film.
- Why is it set in the present day?
The excitement of sorcery is 'what if I can be a sorcerer?' and the great mystery is 'what if sorcerers were alive today?' That’s something we can all relate to and dream about.
So by setting it in the present day and in New York, which seems to be the most realistic place to live, where fantasy sometimes gets a little bit trampled on, and a lot of reality comes into peoples lives, it’s kind of fun to see that just below the surface, there’s some magic happening.
- Has the success of Harry Potter opened avenues?
Harry Potter just made it harder for us because you can’t do any of the things that Harry Potter has done because they’ve done them all really well! So there’s no magic wands, no magic phrases. We need a different style of magic.
- What excites you about this movie?
In one sense, I’m excited that Nic trusted me with this movie. Nic hired me. Being entrusted with a piece of Disney pedigree is very exciting as it’s important that you take care of the legacy. It’s exciting to become part of the new Disney legacy.
The Sorcerers Apprentice is in Cinemas on August 11th