Race To Witch Mountain

TheCentralScrutinizer · 02 May 08 :: 03:48

Somewhere, I have an original half sheet with this same art from the 1975 movie...

TheCentralScrutinizer · 27 May 08 :: 21:17

RTWM moved into Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas today to begin a week of shooting on and around Freemont St. Sure wish someone would snag some pics already!

TheCentralScrutinizer · 28 May 08 :: 01:33

Oh, and I meant to say that the Planet Hollywood shoot is apparently supposed to be a UFO conference. I think it's really cool that there's Ufology is this movie. The originals didn't have any of that at all. UFOs were never mentioned at all in the first movie. But I guess they were trying to keep that spaceship at the end a surprise.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 07 Jun 08 :: 01:51

TeeJay posted this in a miscellaneous thread, but I think it belongs here. Chris's description of a day on the set of RTWM (from a recent email):

Witch Mountain has been interesting, because it's by far the biggest budget movie I've ever worked on. So they spare no expense. And when you work a lot in independent films, this project is a bit of a shock. It's awesome. Andy Fickman runs a really entertaining set, and all the actors are great. Cirian Hinds, Tom Everett Scott and Billy Brown and I basically sit around for hours, reading, watching movies, hanging around crafty, and then we get called to work for a few minutes at the end of the day in some crazy shot where we are running down a smoke filled hallway with sixty swat team guys behind us while explosions are heard everywhere. So it's always an exciting day at work.

OhGnarly · 07 Jun 08 :: 03:28

Man, I would kill for a job that entertaining.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 11 Jun 08 :: 16:06

Only 10 days left to go on the shoot before it's in the can. Woohoo!

TheCentralScrutinizer · 13 Jun 08 :: 21:31

Hey, check it out, ET behind the scenes on RTWM! Chris is not in it, and I couldn't watch it with sound, but we get a glimpse anyway. And now we know what Andy Fickman looks like.

http://as-robb.net/video/displayimage.p … at=0&pos=0

TeeJay · 13 Jun 08 :: 22:07

Here's an interview with The Rock at the set that I found:

http://www.imeem.com/djfnet/video/EKUI7 … in_movies/

-TeeJay

TheCentralScrutinizer · 14 Jun 08 :: 00:08

Watched both videos. Just as a point of interst, the blond waitress you see very briefly in the clip from AnnaSophia's site is Kim Richards.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 14 Jun 08 :: 04:40

Just before I passed out for a couple of hours tonight, I watched Entertainment Tonight and they had an extended version of the clip from AnnaSophia's site. In it, they interviewed both Kim and Ike on camera. Kim said she was having the time of her life. Still no Chris though.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 08 Jul 08 :: 21:09

Ask and ye shall receive. I asked Andy if he could post the character's names on the IMDB RTWM board since the page for the film still had missing and inaccurate names. He did...

I think as soon as they submit the final cast list then the actual names will go up. But until then I can happily give you the following:
Dwayne Johnson: Jack Bruno
Carla Gugino: Dr. Alex Friedman
Annasophia Robb: Sara
Alexander Ludwig: Seth
Ciaran Hinds: Burke
Tom Everett Scott: Mattheson
Chris Marquette: Pope
Billy Brown: Carson
Garry Marshall: Dr. Donald Harlan
Kim Richards: Tina
Iake Eisennmen: Sheriff Antony
Cheech Marin: Eddie

Antony & Tina, huh? LOL! Very cute.

TeeJay · 08 Jul 08 :: 22:32

Can I expect Chris to actually say my name in the movie? Very cool.

-TeeJay

TheCentralScrutinizer · 08 Jul 08 :: 23:06

Probably not. I think maybe Kim is only in one scene and it involves The Rock and the kids. No one else. They showed them filming that specific scene on Entertainment Tonight. Sorry.

I hope I'm wrong though...

TeeJay · 08 Jul 08 :: 23:31

Oh well... Maybe next time. Maybe I should change my name to Buffy or Suzy or Sara.

-TeeJay

TheCentralScrutinizer · 08 Jul 08 :: 23:41

Yeah, you look like a Buffy to me.

TeeJay · 10 Jul 08 :: 22:20

Did you know that Witch Mountain has a presence at Comic Con this year? Found this on collider.com:

WHAT: RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN Comic-Con Film Panel
WHEN: Thursday, July 24th, 2008; 3:00 – 4:00 PM
LOCATION: HALL H
What secrets does Witch Mountain hold? Join stars Dwayne Johnson and Carla Gugino, and director Andy Fickman, as they take the stage in Hall H on Thursday, July 24th at 3:00 PM to talk about the mysterious and paranormal activity around Witch Mountain. Dwayne, Carla and Andy will present the very first look at the movie and answer audience questions as they talk about the thrilling action-adventure that is set to hit theatres in March 2009!

So hopefully two of Chris's movies will be represented at Comic Con this year. Very cool!

-TeeJay

TheCentralScrutinizer · 10 Jul 08 :: 22:32

Damnit! Now I really wanna go! Did you post it on IMDb or can I? I wanna play with Andy about it a little bit...:P

TeeJay · 10 Jul 08 :: 22:42

Sure, go ahead and post it. I don't usually check that IMDb board anyway.

-TeeJay

TheCentralScrutinizer · 10 Jul 08 :: 23:24

Done.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 16 Jul 08 :: 15:24

OMG! Whitley Strieber's in it!

The more I hear about this movie, the more I love it. Thanks for posting this, Illinois! Did you post it on IMDb?

TheCentralScrutinizer · 16 Jul 08 :: 16:02

I read this a while back, but she never mentioned the name of the movie and I never connected the dots. Here is Whit's wife, Anne talking about doing their cameo in RTWM...

What's It Like? (To Act in a movie)
Saturday April 26th, 2008
Whitley and I just had a week of amazing adventure—doing a "cameo" on the set of a major motion picture.
It was a classic movie set, with security guards stationed everywhere and people of all races and colors walking around doing "ordinary" things, such as drinking coffee or talking on their cellphones, while dressed in outlandish "Star Trek"-type costumes, with huge purple or orange wigs and monster masks. When we passed one actor who seemed to have strange, "alien" eyes, Whitley whispered to me, "If that guy isn't wearing contacts, I'm going home!"
I decided to wear one of the wigs I have leftover from the days when my head was shaved when I had the shunt put into my scalp. So I wouldn't have to wear wigs forever, my hairdresser and I have developed what might be called a "shunt cut" for me. This sounds faintly obscene, but it's really just a cut and color that hides the lump on my head. However, this means my hair is very short and layered, so I thought a wig would look better (in the photo that goes along with my diaries, I'm wearing ANOTHER wig, not the one I wore on the set). Since so many other people were wearing them—and outlandish ones too—I felt right at home.
The director, however, wore the usual "director's uniform" of baggy shorts, sneakers and a baseball cap. He's a new friend whose film includes a UFO convention, so he decided to put up a booth on the set just for us. Our call the first day was for 7:30 in the morning, meaning we had to get up at 5:30, since the set is an hour's drive away from our home and we wanted to eat breakfast, because we didn't know what there would be to eat when we arrived.
We were afraid to skip breakfast the first day, but we discovered they feed you well on a movie set (if they didn't, the actors and crew would probably mutiny!) There are always trucks parked nearby dispensing coffee and tea and there is a "craft service" table with snacks on it (but some of this stuff can be lethal—you have to stay away from the chips and donuts).
I heard some great stories while I was there. I asked if I could wear green during the shoot and the wardrobe mistress brought me a green top to wear without questioning why. She told me a great story: her father-in-law is a director who had an actor on one of his films who was HATED by the crew. This actor used a cane, so every day when he was in front of the camera, some crew members would take his cane and file down the bottom of it. They did this a little bit at a time, so he wouldn't suspect anything, but he gradually needed to lean over further and further in order to use it.
They got even with him another way as well. When the film was about to "wrap," he demanded to keep his wardrobe (taking home clothes is something that is frowned upon). So when we was done wearing some of these items on the set, the wardrobe people altered them—ever so subtly—to make them just a little bit smaller, so he'd think he'd gained weight when he took them home.
The only thing missing from the set was "little people." There always used to be a dwarf or two on a movie set, since they would wear—or manipulate—all the special effects. Computer- generated "cgi" effects have eliminated that entire industry (which is sad).
On the last day, we got a "call" at the last minute, so we threw on our clothes, I grabbed my wig, and we tumbled into the car. Since it was during the rush hour, it took us two hours to get there, but when we finally arrived, we found they hadn't set up the shot yet. This is typical of movie- making, which is the art of "hurry up and wait." Some of the jobs are complex, while others seem easy, but not everyone could do even the simple ones, because it takes a special kind of mentality: you have to be able to sit through hours of tedium and boredom when you're not needed, then be ready to spring up and do a perfect job when you are. If the director decides he wants to redo a scene, but in moonlight this time, the gaffer (the lighting man—who can be identified because he's festooned in clothespins and is wearing rolls of tape on his belt) has to be able to manipulate the lights and gels to produce that effect, usually within a few minutes.
Since no one was on the set when we arrived, we figured it must be dinner time, and when we checked it out, we found we were correct, so we had a lovely prime rib meal. And we earned it later! Along with a large group of extras, we did the same scene, again and again, for hours, but we finally got it right and the film was wrapped. We staggered back to our car, only to find that it was 2 a.m. This time we got home in 20 minutes.

Source: Anne's Diary at UnknownCountry.com --- http://www.unknowncountry.com/diary/?id=317

domesticelefant · 16 Jul 08 :: 21:38

Sisterdebmac wrote:

OMG! Whitley Strieber's in it!

Who's that? Never heard of that guy. :clueless:

TeeJay · 16 Jul 08 :: 21:52

He's an author, writes a lot about aliens (and says he was abducted by them). Deb can fill you in since she loves his books. Or else you check wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitley_Strieber

-TeeJay

TheCentralScrutinizer · 18 Jul 08 :: 15:53

More from McWeeny at AICN...

Of course he has to act all cooler than thou. And I guess it's a good thing nobody told him Chris is in the movie or he would've found a way to take a nasty poke at him, probably.

Moriarty Visits The Pomona Set Of RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN! The Rock... And Whitley Streiber?!
Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here.
I really am not a morning person. And having kids has only complicated that. I work all night, but even when I do have time to sleep, my youngest is still up every few hours. For the most part, the hours from about 6:00 to 11:00 are mine most mornings, uninterrupted.
Unless I have to be in Pomona. Pomona is, from pretty much any point in Los Angeles, a big drive. Problem is, so is my house but in the other direction. So I had a big drive before I had a big drive. And when I finally arrived at the Pomona Fairplex, about ten minutes before the 8:30 call time, I was barely conscious. I was one of a handful of familiar LA online writers who had been invited, and I saw them standing with Jack and Tim, the Disney guys I normally deal with. Everyone was picking off the craft service table or ordering from the catering truck. I didn't have to be encouraged. I figured I'd need some carbs to kickstart me out of sleepy grizzly mode, so I ordered a breakfast burrito and told the guy to "make it reeeeeeally hot."
Two things. First, I forgot to mention that this wasn't just a set visit. We'd been told that we specifically were going to be put on camera. Somehow, Disney had wrangled us into extra work. And second, never tell the dude on the catering truck to "make it reeeeeeally hot." He will most likely take it as a personal challenge to his manhood and decide to fuck you up on purpose. Point taken, catering dude. Point taken.
The Fairplex is a giant collection of buildings where they can have events. It's laid out like a city in a science fiction movie. It's the permanent home of the LA County Fair every September, and the rest of the time, they have all sorts of events, like this month you can see the Tattoo & Body Art Expo or the Los Angeles World Guitar Show or, my pick, the California Summer Nationals Karate Tournament. It's a very nice, very upscale facility, and one of the buildings was our stage for the day. And outside, we were met by director Andy Fickman.
His is not a long filmography, nor is it one likely to flame wild enthusiasm in the fanboy community. Of his work, I liked REEFER MADNESS: THE MOVIE MUSICAL, I'm indifferent to SHE'S THE MAN (probably due in large part to my almost chemical-dislike of Amanda Bynes), and I thought THE GAME PLAN was a big phony demographically shrewd Rock vehicle that did its job with all the efficiency the Disney marketing department needed to make a slam dunk. And it made a super-colossal fuck-ton of money.
So I guess I assumed when driving out that Fickman would turn out to be some slick hipster dude, making these easy softball Disney and Nickelodeon generation movies. And instead... well... let me start by saying that Andy Fickman is Yosemite Sam. Visually and personality wise, all he needs is a pair of working six-guns. He comes at you at about 150 miles-per-hour from the moment you meet him, and watching him on three separate occasions now, I've never seen another mode. Fickman's a battle tank. Whatever his personal secret is, he should probably be squeezed or extracted or reproduced somehow so we can all either live to be 100 or at least work as hard as if we did. Within about ten minutes of meeting him, we felt like we knew his life story. He's been in the business a while, and at one point, he ran Bette Midler's production company. If I remember the list correctly, he was also a professional juggler, a roadie, a crab fisherman, a human statue, a drag race driver on tour, and the original Ronald McDonald.
He's also, and this one is true, a huge UFO enthusiast who was born in Roswell, New Mexico. Seriously. He is one of those guys who can quote it all to you, chapter-and-verse, everything from Roswell forward, and although he stopped short of telling us, "Well, of course I've been abducted, too," he certainly spoke with authority when he told us how his film isn't a remake. He's setting his movie thirty years later, and the old films happened. And within moments of being introduced to us, he's already telling us how much darker his idea of WITCH MOUNTAIN is and how Oren and the rest of Disney are supporting them AND leaving them alone, letting them make a Disney movie as dark as the PIRATES films. That would certainly be a major decision by Disney, and intriguing. Does Fickman really have that much clout? He suggested to us that it helps that Andrew Gunn is producing. He was the producer on SKY HIGH, but more importantly in terms of buying some clout with Disney right now, he produced COLLEGE ROAD TRIP.
"Now's the right time," said Fickman. "Both of us are just coming off of things that are very, like, 'I've got the dog and you've got the pig.'" Whenever Gunn spoke, it was obvious that the film he's most proud of, that he brings up as an example of almost anything you might end discussing on a film set, is SKY HIGH. It may not have made a ton of money, but it seems to be very near and dear to him, and a lot of the experience of getting something a little off-center through Disney is one that he's counting on to help get RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN done. Both he and Fickman view this as a real action movie, and that's a big part of why they went after Dwayne Johnson as their lead.
I've met him a few times now on different sets, and I'm of mixed mind about Dwayne in person. He's very affable, very approachable, and he's one of those guys who seems determined to keep a set moving forward with everyone smiling. Verrrrrrry professional. But the other side of that is a sort of robotic repetition of industry terms, where I can tell he must have an awesome team of agents and managers and publicists all using those same terms. "We feel it's time to transition Dwayne into the family market with an aggressive slate of material designed to reach a four-quadrant demo." Sheeeeesh. The thing that got this movie greenlit was, bottom-line, Dwayne wanted to get back into the action business. And RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN lets him bring his new-found family film success to an action movie, so it's the best of both worlds for him.
And, look, I'm fairly cynical these days about all the remakes and the reboots and the revamps and the strip-mining of our collective childhood. I really can't fathom that so much of this nerdstalgia is choking most original work out of the studio system completely. It freaks me out, and I think it's short-sighted. I just don't see where the new voices are being encouraged, where we're taking any chances as an industry.
As a result, the closest thing we see to daring is the decision to let Fickman turn a lovably cheesy series of kid's films from the '70s into an action-SF update with monster aliens and The Rock kicking ass and Carla Gugino hottin' things up using the stunt team from the BOURNE movies and CASINO ROYALE. Which, admittedly, sounds sort of crazy, and that's why I dragged myself out to Pomona to see what they were doing.
Inside the building they were using for the day, an entire UFO convention had been created. I'm not sure how much of this you'll be able to register onscreen, but it was sort of amazing how detailed the entire convention was. Every booth was manned by a real enthusiast, someone who was really part of the UFO community, and as a result, from the moment we stepped inside, it was easy to forget you were on a stage. Even between takes, people were checking out the booths, reading pamphlets or flipping through books, trading business cards with each other. The two cameos that seemed to excite Fickman the most were Whitley Streiber, author of WOLFEN and, of course, COMMUNION, and Bill Burns, the host of UFO HUNTERS on The History Channel.
Fickman talked about how most UFO conventions fall into one of two extremes. Either they are very dry and scientific because they're worried about respectability, or they are completely cheesy sort of lunatic gatherings where everyone's running around yelping about anal probes. For this particular convention, they tried to design something in the middle, and the best compliment Fickman got from the real UFO enthusiasts he brought in is that they're going to steal his layout for the next real convention they have. He was laughing how he thought it was silly for the production design team to put a karaoke booth onto the convention floor right next to the cattle mutilations display until he caught the UFO fans crowding in to do some karaoke every time there was a break in filming. We walked by the Bill Burns booth first to meet him, and then Fickman led us further onto the convention floor. He talked about how it's a fine line when you're inviting these real people to take part in a scene like this because, all kidding aside, many of them take this all very seriously, and if they think you're making fun of them, it could get ugly very quickly. Because Fickman's a real-deal UFO fanatic himself, though, that wasn't an issue. I don't think he could belittle that community if he tried. He's too connected to it.
An example of a joke that pays respect to the community while still building character involves Carla Gugino's address to the convention. She's a serious scientist with genuinely explosive facts to reveal, but because she's determined to play it straight, her Power Point presentation bores everyone right out of the room.
Meanwhile, Garry Marshall, who plays a rival UFO expert, gives a pandering speech full of ridiculousness and light of any science, and he's greeted warmly as a result. Marshall's look in the film is based fairly directly on Bill Burns, which made it extra strange when Burns walked by Marshall's booth while we were there. Carla Gugino's look in the film, on the other hand, seems to be based on the fact that she's really, really hot. Distractingly hot, to hear producer Andrew Gunn tell it. Evidently, when the two lead kids were cast, young Alexander Ludwig (THE DARK IS RISING) wasn't familiar with Gugino. He asked what films she'd done, and instead of someone steering him SPY KIDS, they mentioned SIN CITY. The next day, Alexander seemed particularly determined to be around Carla as much as possible, puberty striking that table read like a tsunami. I don't blame him at all.
Alexander is one of the two alien kids who are the ostensible leads of the film, with AnnaSophia Robb (or Natalie Portman 2.0, as I like to call her) playing the other lead. In the original WITCH MOUNTAIN films, the kids were playing by Ike Eisenmann and Kim Richards, and both of them will make appearances in Fickman's new film. The basic premise of this new film is similar to the original movies. Two alien kids on the run on Earth, trying to find something that ties them to their home planet, with a normal unsuspecting adult drawn into the chase while protecting the kids from people trying to hurt them. In this case, Dwayne Johnson is the cab driver who gets pulled into the chase, with the movie drawing some structural inspiration from Michael Mann's COLLATERAL. And the bad guy in this one is Ciaran Hinds, a pretty impressive catch for a Disney alien movie, and it was obvious that Fickman was just as startled by the casting as we were. "I keep asking him if he learned any tricks from Spielberg that I can steal," he joked at one point.
One thing that's different this time is that there is an alien monster in the mix, the Syphon, played by Tom Woodruff Jr. and designed by Woodruff and Gillis. In the scene being shot while we were onset, Dwayne was running through the crowd, trying to find the kids, worried because the Syphon is close behind. The group of us was gathered together, dressed in UFO convention t-shirts, and then scattered around a photo area that had been set up with life-sized STAR WARS mannequins that were actually sent from Lucasfilm.
The shot that we were supposed to be in featured Dwayne running through, interrupting the photos being taken. They told us to look at him like he'd just ruined the most important moment of our lives, and we ended up running through about nine takes from two angles. In between, we got a chance to chat with Dwayne a little bit, and this was the moment where we got to see the "real" Dwayne, a guy who wasn't repeating Hollywood-ese at us, but who instead just seemed to be blowing off a little steam between takes.
We also got a chance to chat with Whitley Streiber, who was there with his wife. To my surprise, he seemed to know Ain't It Cool fairly well, and we ended up having a nice conversation about SF in general. A few years ago, I took advantage of a Q&A at the Egyptian after a screening of LIFEFORCE to thank Tobe Hooper for kickstarting my own puberty with the casting of Mathilda May in that film, and chatting with Streiber, I took a similar opportunity to thank him for writing THE HUNGER, which led to Tony Scott putting Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve in a lesbian clinch. "God, I had a second puberty when I saw it," he told me, "so I can only imagine what it did to a kid." I was also surprised by how open Streiber was in talking about his UFO experiences, which have by now become a cottage industry for him. Whether you believe him or not seems to make no difference to Streiber. He didn't hard-sell me on the idea, and at the same time, he didn't downplay it or act embarrassed about it. I'm not sure I'd have the stones to tell people I was abducted by a UFO if it happened to me, if only because of the incredulity factor.
Finally, around 1:00 in the afternoon, they finished with our shots, and we were told that they would invite us back for some of the bigger sets in the film in the weeks ahead, so we'll continue our discussion of the film in a few more articles, one for each of the visits I made to the sets, featuring more detailed interviews and explanations about why they're making this new WITCH MOUNTAIN and what to expect when it hits screens in 2009. In the meantime, anyone whose curious in San Diego next week should keep their eyes peeled for the Disney panel, where you'll see some of the first WITCH MOUNTAIN footage for yourself. I think genre fans might be pleasantly surprised by what they see if they check it out.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 24 Jul 08 :: 16:18

Part II of McWeeny's set visit...

Moriarty Returns To WITCH MOUNTAIN For A Second Set Visit! And News On The Disney ComicCon Panel?!
It's in your best interest to drop by the Disney panel at ComicCon, I've been warned, and not by Disney. By an anonymous source who claims this is one of three panels where there are going to be big giant unscheduled things a-happenin'.
Of course, that could just be a way of getting us to tell you to drop by the panels for Disney, Fox, and Dark Castle. But what if it's true? What is this bombshell surprise that is planned?
Could it be Pixar's announcement of JOHN CARTER OF MARS? If so, expect everyone present to need the immediate use of new pants following whatever they might present. Not that I'm saying that's what it is... I'm just guessing what they might have in their golf bag that would be considered a big deal. Is there an obvious guess I'm missing? Would UP be considered a big deal if it actually made an appearance? You tell me.
I'm not sure what footage they'll be showing from WITCH MOUNTAIN, but I'm sure they're going to try to give you a sense of what they're going for, a real no-shit action movie with a hard SF/superhero edge to it.
When we visited the second time, it was on the Disney lot in Burbank instead of a location. They were using one of the stages, and they'd built an underground garden environment, part of the mystery surrounding the two kids played by Alexander Ludwig and AnnaSophia Robb. This is their birthright, a place left for them by their parents, and just as soon as they find it and get a chance to explore it, they're forced to either run or fight when the Siphon, the alien assassin that is chasing them, breaks into the place.
Dwayne Johnson was there again, front and center, and I have to say... watching him work journalists when you visit a set while he's working... it's a well-polished show. He knows exactly what he's doing, what he's saying. He's never unaware of people watching him. I've talked to a lot of directors who are intrigued by him and who want to figure out how to cast him, where to use him. I've been part of four different set visits where he's been working so far, and each time, I felt like we were seeing as much of a performance as what went on in front of the camera.
He was just doing a few quick inserts while we were actually there, but they brought in the stunt team to talk to us, including Mike Justus, the guy who was inside the Iron Man suit in IRON MAN, and Scott Rogers, who is partnered with Dan Bradley, Kevin Scott, and Darrin Prescott in Go Stunts, one of the most cutting-edge stunt units in the business right now. "We started pursuing the technology instead of letting it steamroll us." Now, it's all about them putting the lead actor in the action, and really doing it. Allowing them to do as much as possible, so it's as real as possible. They used the Go Mobile for the first time on THE BOURNE SUPREMECY. And what, you might ask, is The GoMobile? Well, that's what I wondered when I heard them mention it in passing. Color me curious. When they brought Scott Rogers over, that's what I wanted to ask about more than anything else.
"It's an engine and a driver's pod that you can attach to anything... you can look back and see your actor in whatever you want to see them in, going 70 miles an hour, and it's really them... we did stuff like that with Dwayne on this film, and that's all real. We took him out and did a chase on this long highway, and you can't cheat that. It's them. The lighting is real." He talks about the difference between that and the films where you use greenscreen for the lead actor to pretend to be driving.
"Here, you're really doing it. You can shoot the outside of the car, then drift into the car and see the actor at the wheel, doing it."
We talked about him training the actors to drive, and how most of them come to it ready to do it, with some practical experience already under their belt. "We came up with the NAR approach... No Acting Required." When you do these chase scenes, you don't have to act, you just have to react. We talked about the impact of technology on the stunt industry, and the way it's finally working to boost the industry instead of compete with it. That's the philosophy behind his company, which is still fairly young, but these guys have amazing credits to their names, and they seem determined to shoot action in ways that were never possible until now, something I find exciting as an action fan and as a filmmaker.
Fickman and Gunn, director and producer, told stories about Ciarin Hinds. Gunn took particular delight in doing his impression of Hinds watching Fickman work his first week on set. "Andy, you do know that I'm not going to be able to put everything on my resume, right? I have to make room for ROME and MUNICH, where I worked with Steven Spielberg, of course." And to his credit, Fickman contributed many of the best jabs at himself, playing off Gunn back and forth.
Fickman talked about how much he loves peppering this film with easter eggs regarding the history of WITCH MOUNTAIN. The two most notable, of course, would be Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann, who both play roles again. Fickman talked about his first meetings with Richards. "She said how strange it was when she stopped being the girl from WITCH MOUNTAIN and started getting known more as Paris Hilton's aunt." That was news to me, and as a '70s kid, I'd be a liar if I didn't confess a hardcore crush on her back in the day. I really admired Richards in BLACK SNAKE MOAN, and brought it up, and Fickman told me how much it helped convince Disney to cast her. "She had two great hardcore scenes in that film. I was able to call the studio and say, 'She can totally pull it off.'" That movie had marked the end of a self-imposed sabbatical for Richards, and she had a great experience on this film as well. Richards and Eisenmann got to play one moment together, and Fickman enjoyed being able to put the two of them together, and watching a steady stream of people speak to them about how much that meant all day long. Eddie Albert makes a particularly brilliant cameo in a winnebego in the film, and I want to see how that plays out. There are street names, boat names, props and more, all making visual and thematic references to the earlier films and the original books, which were a little more paranoid and creepy.
We had a few minutes to talk to Ludwig and Robb together, and basically, they are the yin and yang of young performers when you set them side-by-side. Robb's already got this incredibly focused Hollywood polish down cold, just like Dwayne Johnson does. I heard a few anecdotes from people onset about Robb managing to get some product placement in the film for something she's an investor in, an energy drink that ended up with a prominent kiosk in the convention sequence they were shooting at my first set visit.
Ludwig, on the other hand, seems like a big ball of youthful exuberance and energy, happy to be onset and working, professional but still very much a kid. I think Robb seems very nice and very smart, but I know 30 year olds who aren't as together as she appears to be. Ludwig strikes me as young... or more precisely, he strikes me as being exactly his age. Should be interesting to see how that contrast between them plays onscreen. We learned what their powers are in this film. She's the one who can move things with her mind, while this time, he's basically Kitty Pryde. He can make himself incredibly dense or make his molecules so spread out that he passes through things.
And then, once again, we were off, with the promise that they were going to bring us back one more time to visit Witch Mountain itself. If you're interested in seeing if this looks more like a Disney Channel original movie or "a science-fiction BOURNE IDENTITY," as Fickman wants it to be, then make sure you're at the Disney panel from 3:00 – 4:00 in Hall H, where Dwayne Johnson and Carla Gugino (who really is that incredibly gorgeous in person) will be appearing with Andy Fickman and some footage. When you see Fickman talking about his film, you'll understand my earlier reference to Yosemite Sam as played by George Costanza. He's a lot of fun, so if you're interested in this film at all, check it out.
And if there IS some giant bombshell revelation at the panel, drop me a line and let me know.

Chris Marquette Message Board

#51 02 May 08 :: 03:48

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