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Abracadabra! Disney has picked up an untitled magic pitch that has a real-life magician on board as a producer.
Keith Bunin will be penning the script for the project. (Bunin wrote Ezekiel Moss, the movie the late Philip Seymour Hoffman was set to direct before he passed away in February.)
Producing the untitled magic project is Justin Springer, who was an exec producer on last year’s Tom Cruise sci-fi movie Oblivion, alongside an interesting choice: Derek DelGaudio.
DelGaudio is an award-winning star in the magic world known for his sleight-of-hand and card tricks. He starred with Helder Guimaraes in Nothing to Hide, a magic show that recently ended a stint in New York after a run in Los Angeles and was directed by Neil Patrick Harris, an avid practitioner of the magical arts and president of the Academy of Magical Art/Magic Castle.
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DelGaudio already had a Disney connection: He is an artist-in-residence at Walt Disney Imagineering, a temporary appointment that began earlier this year and lasts two months.
He incubated the project, whose plot is being kept hidden up the studio’s sleeve. It is known, however, to tackle the history of magic’s last 100 years as seen through the eyes of one magician.
Springer was a co-producer on Tron: Legacy and is developing a live-action version of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride as well as a remake of The Black Hole.
Bunin is currently writing Standard Loneliness Package for Fox Searchlight with John Krokidas directing. He also wrote Illumination’s Dr. Seuss biopic that has Johnny Depp attached as the children’s author as well as Skyjack, which Will Gluck is directed for CBS Films and is out to cast.
Bunin’s work has a touch of magic to it. He wrote Horns, the adaptation of the Joe Hill horror novel that stars Daniel Radcliffe and tells of a man who wakes up to find a pair of horns on his head. (The movie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.)
And Ezekiel Moss tells of a man with the power to talk to the dead. (The project has Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams attached and is looking for a new director.)
He is repped by CAA, Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment and Schreck Rose.
Email: Borys.Kit@THR.com
Twitter: @borys_kit
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