Kurtzman and Orci Make Magic with Now You See Me

Hollywood's go-to writer-producer team of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci seemingly have their hands in everything these days -- the Star Trek movies, Amazing Spider-Man 2, Ender's Game, a Sleepy Hollow TV show and much, much more. But they're also starting to branch out into producing other writers' scripts as well, as with their upcoming action-thriller Now You See Me which hits screens on May 31.

Dave Franco, Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher and Woody Harrelson star in Now You See Me.

In Now You See Me, Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson lead "The Four Horsemen," a group of illusionists -- magicians, basically -- whose act has taken on a Robin Hood angle as they steal from the corrupt rich and give to the poor schlubs in their audience. Mark Ruffalo also stars as the FBI agent who's trying to outmaneuver the Horsemen, while Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Isla Fisher, Melanie Laurent, Dave Franco and Common round out the cast.

I spoke to Kurtzman and Orci about the film, their move into producing other people's screenplays, and where Now You See Me draws the line between magic and illusion.

Scott Collura: So what was it that attracted you to this spec script?

Roberto Orci: First of all, if you’re a movie fan, you’re a fan of magic. Orson Welles is a lot of magic, so the idea behind the movie tricks that were developed -- movies and storytelling are all about misdirection, and the movie takes that into account. It’s sort of interesting just as fans of the genre. And then it’s a very clever mix of a Robin Hood story and the modern day with these bank robbers who know the tricks of the trade of illusionism. It’s just a nice mix of the familiar and something really original.

SC: Now obviously you guys have made your names as writers and writer-producers. This is really one of your first projects to come out where you’re just producers. What is that process like?

Alex Kurtzman: I think that the benefit of being writing producers is that the writers we work with, it actually feels very familiar. We have the great benefit of being trained by writing producers, and there’s a great comfort that comes with that. I think we see it as part of our job to give that same comfort to the writers that we work with. So a lot of it is, we’re sort of approaching story and character in the way we would want to be seeing it if we were writing it too. We work with writers who are really flexible and limber and excited by opening up new possibilities in storytelling. All the writers were just fantastic on this one, so it’s really been a pleasure.

SC: Is there something that comes to it from your work in TV as well, where you might come and sit in the writers room and throw out ideas for specific script? Where there’s a sort of community approach to it in a way?

AK: Absolutely. Television teaches you not be precious about that at all. You find yourself in a room talking about story and character beats with a bunch of people. I think we’ve also learned, because we started with each other, we already started from a place of being very comfortable bouncing ideas back and forth and sharing them and riffing and having fun. So we like that approach, and it feels like a very productive way to generate work.

SC: What is the process for the two of you when you’re writing? Does one of you sit at the keyboard and the other one’s pacing back and forth, like you’d picture it in a movie or something?

RO: Yeah, it is like how you’d picture it in a movie. It goes through stages. Like when we first started writing, we’d both pace outside because we were smokers then, but then we quit and it becomes more like bagels and granola. [Laughs] Now we’re so busy that we’re writing in the car, seriously taking dictation, you know? We kind of adapt to the changing times. It’s sort of funny that way.

SC: Like Rod Serling. I think he reached a point where he was so prolific that he would dictate entire scripts into his reel-to-reel. So in terms of the magic in this film, without getting real spoiler-ish about it, how out there is the magic? Are we meant to believe that it could be real magic going on?

AK: Is Harry Potter magic real, you mean? Yes.

RO: Well, that’s actually the cool question of the movie. As you’re watching some of the things unfold, there’s this great skepticism among some of the characters, and they actually explain how these tricks are done. So you see magic deconstructed, and then it becomes, “Can it be deconstructed down to its most fundamental point?” Or is there an element of genuine magic in the world? That’s actually the point of the movie.

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