Nicolas Cage
When director Jon Turteltaub spied the media waiting to speak with him on the set of The Sorcerer's Apprentice on a hot summer night in Manhattan, he joked, "Who do you think is prettier, me or Mira Nair?" We replied, it's a close call. While the cast and crew were in the midst of working on the climactic confrontation between good wizard Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) and evil wizard maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina), which involved a lot of technical details, Turteltaub seemed to be at ease. Then again, with two National Treasure movies under his belt, he is familiar both with his star (Cage) and large-scale productions. This is, however, the most extensive on-location movie he has shot in the Big Apple.
"It's been great actually," Turteltaub said during a respite in filming. "It's not that it's not difficult, but nothing is not doable. I think it's like living in New York City -- everything is possible and nothing's easy. [There are] a lot of conversations and rule following and bureaucracy to do things the right, established way. It's no more difficult or easy for a Bruckheimer movie [than a] small, independent film. New York invites people here, but we have 22 big rig trucks, and it's hard enough to park a Vespa in New York, so trying to find a way to park 22 trucks is [that much more] difficult."
The Sorcerer's Apprentice makes extensive use of NYC exteriors, from Midtown to Chinatown to this shoot near Battery Park, a scene which involved the Wall Street bull coming to life. New York presents challenges, even for experienced actors. "It's a bit insane shooting in the middle of it sometimes," acknowledged Montreal native Jay Baruchel, who plays the titular character, "especially when you're driving around in a very visible car like a Mercedes or Rolls-Royce with the most famous human on the planet. Nicolas Cage in Midtown on a Friday is a very interesting thing."
The Jerry Bruckheimer-produced film, originally developed by and starring Cage, expands upon the famous Fantasia animated sequence, which featured Mickey Mouse as the titular character enchanting mops and brooms to help with his housecleaning, only to have things go horribly awry. Things are far more complicated in this live action incarnation. Cage is a sorceror seeking a talented apprentice to help him end an ancient war between good and bad wizards -- the Merlinians versus the Morganians. He finds promise in a young NYU student named Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel), and the two then tackle the evil Horvath (Alfred Molina), who is freeing evil compatriots whose souls are trapped in ancient containers called Grimholds.
Although some might think the National Treasure adventure movies and this fantasy are far apart, Cage finds a parallel. "Even the National Treasure movies have a flair to them, being that they are dealing with treasure and history in an almost nostalgic way," he observed between takes, dressed in his leathery sorcerer's garb. "There is a similar fantastic quality about those movies as well that I think fits within the Disney tradition. This one really goes out on the other spectrum of magic and fantasy."
Though Turteltaub is known for doing movies that reach a broad audience -- National Treasure ended up being PG -- there is a chance that this one could be PG-13, which doesn't worry him or Cage. They want to walk that line between a movie that can be enjoyed by children and adults.
"There are some spooky moments that are intrinsic to the story…even kids want to get a little bit scared," remarked Cage. "That's why some of those rides at Disneyland work, because there is a thrill factor to them. But adults will also have something to look forward to in this movie. I love doing this kind of stuff. I love to increasingly do more movies that fall into this kind of genre. To me, this is the best way to apply myself."
"I said yes because it was interesting to play a double character," reported Monica Bellucci during a quick visit to the set. "In this film , I [play] Victoria and Morgana. Victoria is the long-lost love of Balthazar, and there's a moment in the film where she's possessed by the evil sorceress Morgana. That's why I said yes to the movie, to have the chance to play the good and the bad and a double personality, and also to make a movie that my child can watch, unlike Irreversible or The Passion of the Christ. I've never done a film that my baby could watch…I think she's going to see Irreversible when she's 40."
The Sorcerer's Apprentice will certainly will be a chance of pace from those films. Fueled by Cage's dramatic posturing and Baruchel's comic skills and timing, the film's set to be pure summer popcorn fare. But the production team is taking the project very seriously.
For Baruchel, getting the lead in this movie was exciting but also "daunting, terrifying and a lot to live up to. It will give me bragging rights when the Happy Meals come out." But for an actor who has improvised a lot of comedy in R-rated movies, toning things down to at least PG-13 level has been tricky. "This is the hardest thing for me to do on a day-to-day basis, to not say balls or **** or something random," he quipped. "I can't even say damn. They don't like me saying damn off camera. As my mother said when I was a little kid, swearing is an ignorant man's refuge, so it makes me have to step on my toes and come up with other funny things that don't involve the F-word."
There is also heritage to consider.
"Like most kids, I was bored by the boring parts and liked the fun part," Turteltaub said of Fantasia. "And the [Sorcerer's Apprentice] sequence was everyone's favorite because there was a story, humor and real, recognizable characters. Not just because we knew Mickey but because we understood without too much metaphor what was going on. At least that was true when I was five. The thought of being handed an important piece of Disney pedigree is daunting."
Aware that many people know nothing of the story, its origin or the iconic Mickey Mouse image with the sorcerer's hat, the director was conflicted about how to approach it. "We talked a lot about it," recalled Turteltaub. "Do we do a wink toward the original, or is that not fulfilling the assignment? We decided this is The Sorcerer's Apprentice and let's tell that story in a live-action form that fits our movie. So far, from what we've shot and the effects that we're doing, it's kind of awesome."
Alfred Molina, who was good humored and an obvious jokester on the set, reveled in being a big screen baddie again. He got to deliver fun lines, engage in exciting stunts and be the villainous foil. When asked if playing Horvath was as deliciously fun as Doctor Octopus was, Molina declared that it was. "It's a different kind of fun and a different kind of material," the actor said, taking a break from trading energy bolts with Cage. (No, we didn't see any that night, but we envisioned the CGI in our heads.) "It's similar in the sense of the scale of it. It's a big budget with lots of green screen and special effects, but whereas Spider-Man was much more technological, this has more to do with magic and human power. Doc Ock was all about the technology and the thing in the back of the neck and the missing chip, whereas this is very human and takes in the notion of periods of time. We travel to different parts of time…as you can see from my costume, this is very Edwardian. That's part of my character's make-up. It's a different kind of approach but still very much the same sort of thing in terms of the scale of it."
"In a way it's simpler stuff because it's more on a human scale," added Molina. "There's lots of running and jumping. There's not a lot of technological stuff. There's a sense of the magic and the power coming from the characters. We see the characters either changing themselves or the power coming from them rather than it being an outside force that infiltrates them. In the Spider-Man movies, both Peter Parker and Doc Ock and all the other villains get affected by an outside force that changes them, so in a sense they become reluctantly what they are, whereas here [with] these villains and heroes, everything comes from their desire to do good or evil."
For Teresa Palmer, who plays Baruchel's amorous interest and partner in adventure in the film, this was her first production of this scale and scope. "I've never been on such a huge production, and it's so exciting," beamed the Australian-born actress, who appeared in Bedtime Stories. "It's a big action film, and I've never done an action movie before. I've done comedies, psychological thrillers and dramas, and this is my first hands-on action film. I get to do some stunts and working with Jerry Bruckheimer is such a dream. He's an incredible presence. He's really hands-on, and it's really refreshing."
Speaking of stunts, Palmer said, "I'm in the very last sequence in the film which has a lot of stunts, and I get captured by Alfred Molina's character. I have to save the world. I have to push this big satellite out of the way, and I'm dangling off the edge of a building."
Although many actors jump to a project like this because of someone like Jerry Bruckheimer or because of the film's franchise potential, Baruchel had other ambitions. "I have far more naïve ambitions," he admitted. "It seemed like a fun thing to do. I'm a huge nerd, and I love any movies with sorcerers, wizards, monsters and people shooting energy out of their hands. I never get to be the lead in those movies. I'm a fan of those movies, but they never cast me for the main guy. So for me to get my chance to do what I do while flying around and shooting energy out of my hands was the main reason. The first mention of plasma bolts was when I decided I wanted to be in the movie."
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