Magicians often insist there’s nothing up their sleeve, but the illusionists in are so good that they fill up their audience’s pockets.
Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco and Woody Harrelson play a performance troupe that uses its skills for a little Robin Hood-style wealth redistributing — and MTV News is giving you the first look behind that magic curtain.
“I’ve always been attracted to magic,” Fisher told MTV News during a visit to the set last year. “It keeps a part of your childish optimism alive to see someone do something like that. And actually Jesse [Eisenberg] has gotten really good. He can actually do genuine magic now, and so can some of the other cast.”
As Michael Atlas, Eisenberg is the ringleader of the group in more ways than one. But he said the film gave him a unique opportunity to learn about art forms and develop talents he never knew he had. “You get to learn such a specific skill you would never otherwise probably come in contact,” Eisenberg observed. “Because magicians and actors … you know, like skateboards and bicyclists, we don’t interact, but we’re doing the same thing, compete for the same audience.”
Eisenberg previously worked with Harrelson on the buddy-horror-comedy “Zombieland,” but he said the cast has really bonded over the course of filming, especially since they all have so many interesting things to do. “The cast is amazing,” he said. “You read the script, there’s like 10 great roles here, everybody’s got something to do. And when they put together the cast, you saw that not only did everybody want to play those roles, but they also wanted to work with each other. It’s turned into kind of an amazing ensemble.”
Mark Ruffalo and Morgan Freeman play two of the men determined to uncover the group’s magical secrets and lock them up in the process. But Eisenberg insisted that their collective skills are being used only for good. “Isla’s an escape artist, Woody plays a mentalist, and Dave Franco’s a pickpocket. And the four of them are teamed up, and they use their individual skill sets to pull off a bank heist in Las Vegas, stealing money from a Paris bank using all of their individual skill sets.
Fisher summed up the idea for fanboys and girls everywhere: “Like the X-Men, we all come together to bring our skills to right the wrongs of the world.”
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