The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
All team (97)
Short description
Burt Wonderstone and Anton Marvelton have headlined a Las Vegas casino for years as a flashy magic duo, but their onstage partnership has outlived the friendship behind it. Their act is further unsettled by Steve Gray, a street performer whose extreme stunts draw the attention the two veterans used to command. When a new trick goes badly, the pair split, leaving Burt to rebuild his career and recover the enthusiasm that first drew him to magic.
Steve Carell plays Burt, with Steve Buscemi as Anton, Jim Carrey as Steve Gray, Olivia Wilde as Jane, James Gandolfini as casino owner Doug Munny and Alan Arkin as Rance Holloway. Don Scardino directed from a screenplay by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. It was Scardino's first feature as director, followed years later by A Break in the Rain.
Made for about 30 million dollars, the film took in roughly 27 million worldwide, falling short of its production cost. On IMDb it holds 5.9 out of 10 from around 78,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.8 from about 1,600, placing it in middling territory with audiences. A critics' score of 5.2 from 194 reviews sits close to those audience figures.
What's left behind the scenes
- Sacha Baron Cohen and Matthew Broderick were considered for the role of Steve Gray.
- Steve Grey is an obvious parody of the famous illusionist Criss Angel, who also worked as a consultant on this project.
- Michelle Monaghan, Winona Ryder, Judy Greer, Sarah Silverman, and Jessica Biel were all considered for the role of Jane.
- Director Don Scardino insisted that the most incredible illusions in the film be filmed live. And although David Copperfield himself worked as a consultant during the filming of these scenes, some of them were still done using computer graphics.
- David Copperfield shared some information about the illusions specifically for the film. This information was so confidential that he even signed special agreements ensuring it would not be disclosed.
- To a certain extent, the characters played by Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi are based on Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn, illusionists who once performed on the stages of Las Vegas. The character played by Michael Herbig, with constant injuries inflicted by predators, is a reference to this same duo, because Fischbacher and Horn's joint performances ended precisely due to the sudden attack of one of the animals involved in the act.
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