Now You See Me: Now You Don't is now playing in theaters, and ahead of its release, we were able to catch up with director Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland; Venom; Uncharted) and producer Bobby Cohen to talk about the long-awaited threequel that brings the Horsemen back into the spotlight as they attempt to pull off their biggest and boldest illusion yet.
In our informative conversation, we cover why this was the right time to bring back the loveable bunch of tricksters, the more exotic shooting locations, finding the right villain for such a massive ensemble cast, what they're planning for the already announced fourth installment, and a whole lot more!
The Ruben Fleischer-directed film stars Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher, Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa, Ariana Greenblatt, with Rosamund Pike, and Morgan Freeman.
Watch our full chat below and/or keep scrolling to read the full transcription. Plus, remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more exclusive content!
ROHAN: Ruben, You have these great action comedy movies on your resume - Uncharted, Venom, Zombieland - so when you’re directing a film like Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, how did you approach bringing your natural sensibilities into this world?
RUBEN: It was really exciting for me because I was a fan of these movies, so I was able to approach the film as if I was a fan, so what would I want to see in the next version of a Now You See Me movie, and just filled it with as much magic as possible. But I also have a long history with working with Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson, who are obviously core characters in this and I was excited to collaborate with them once again in this world that, you know, Bobby created.
ROHAN: Bobby, these movies thrive on misdirection and the illusions you guys have managed to pull off on screen. So, when you were mapping out this third film - which took its sweet time to get here - when did you know this was the right time to bring the Horsemen back into the spotlight?
BOBBY: I mean, in the sliding doors of life, there's probably an alternate universe somewhere where we made the movie, you know, earlier, but when we were constructing the first movie, and we were talking about, how do you make a movie about magic work, because, again, the thing about magic is, if I do a magic trick in front of you, it has power because it's in front of you. If you do a magic trick on screen, the audience knows, by definition, movies are illusion. You know, they go, oh, you turn the camera off, you put the rabbit back in the hat, you turn the camera back on, you pull the rabbit out, right? So, there's not necessarily power. And the thing that we landed on that was the huge, big architectural idea was that if the whole movie is a trick, that's how you can make a movie where the main characters are magicians. And so, if you think about it, the structure of the first movie, in particular, is the structure of a trick. The first act is pick a card. The second act is shuffle the deck. The third act is this your card? And so, what's really hard every time out is, how do you do that? How do you make the movie feel like a trick? And it's harder than it seems. As I always say, they're deceptively tricky, pun intended, to come up with the ideas for these movies, because you don't want to feel like you're just doing a variation on a trick they've seen. So, the reason it took a while was that we just didn't have the right idea. We didn't think that it was going to be worthy all the great work that had come before.
And so, when Ruben and I first started talking, and Ruben leaned in, the first thing is we've got to do as much of this magic in camera. And let's start there. And also, what is an emotional journey for these characters that are now ten years older? So, you know, let's acknowledge that they're older. Let's acknowledge they're in a different place. And what would be the most interesting, and that's what led us towards, well, wait a minute, what if they used to be the young bucks, and now they're middle aged and some of them are married and they have kids, and they're dealing with all that stuff that happens when you get older. And now, there's a bunch of young upstarts that have very different ideas about the craft, about what it means to be a magician that fights for the little guy, and they may have a different attitude about it, and that friction gets you good drama and, you know, again, the thing about the word that I love to use, that I love as a compliment to movies is like buoyancy, you know? And it's different than just energy, because some directors, they're just moving the camera around, but it's not necessarily buoyant. Buoyant is a feeling, and it's using shocks to create a feeling. And that is something, to your point, that Ruben does so well, and that was something that I knew we were going to be able to rely on and count on every day, and that was so much of it, and the trust that I've been able to, you know, over the course of this franchise, build with these actors, but then Ruben coming in as the director, and the trust that certainly the Woody and Jesse had, that bled over immediately to everybody else, because movies are tough to make, and it's sixty and it's seventy days, and the hours are crazy, and you really have to trust the person that's saying to you, even though it feels like this process is fragmented in a million different ways, trust me it's going to work. And I've worked with a lot of directors that don't know how to do that, and so that was, you know, for me, what made this such a great collaboration, and the perfect person for the movie.
ROHAN: Ruben, you’re tasked with juggling such a massive ensemble cast - from the returning Horsemen, the three new characters, and the villain - how are you work toward balancing that challenge and then also casting Rosamund Pike to play the villain that’s more than ready to go toe to toe with our heroes?
RUBEN: Yeah, I mean, the bar was set very high in these films, you know, with legendary actors like Michael Caine and Daniel Radcliffe playing villains in the past movies, I knew that we had to really step up. And Rosamund was just somebody from the first time I saw her on screen, she just absolutely captivated me. She's obviously beautiful, but she's also brilliant. I mean, I think she's Oxford educated, and just seems so sophisticated. So, in bringing to life Veronika Vanderberg, this diamond magnate from South Africa, I knew that we needed someone really captivating, and Rosamund was my first choice. I absolutely loved her, most recently in Saltburn. She makes every character she plays so delicious, and that was the quality that I wanted our villain to have. You just love it, watching them twirl their mustaches, you know, planning their next move. And what was great too, is that Rosamund stepped into the fray with everybody else, like you mentioned, it's a huge cast, but she just had so much fun. I mean, I think she took a cue from everybody. Like, the tone of these movies is fun. That was our North Star from beginning to end. It’s like how could this be the most fun movie possible for audiences, and Rosamund leaned into that spirit and just brought so much joy to her part.
BOBBY: Yeah, I just want to add to that, she said something that was so smart to Ruben and I early when she said, you know, if the audience sees the villain having fun being a villain, then they get to love her and hate her at the same time. And it's such a smart actor choice, and it also is what allows her to have fun with it, be truly villainous, but also not doing a thing that can hurt a movie sometimes, which is resorting into making it campy, because when it's campy, the villain isn't a threat, and if the villain isn't a threat then any of the jeopardy that you're putting our heroes in, isn't real. And the calibration of that is really tricky, and she totally nailed it, and just one thing. I mean, when we were shooting in Abu Dhabi, we were shooting nights, because it's so hot, even at night, so we'd be shooting till five or six o'clock in the morning, and we were all staying basically at the same hotel. And on more than one occasion, we got back to the hotel, walked straight through the lobby, out towards the beach, and everybody jumped in the water with their clothes on and watched the sunrise in the Persian Gulf. That's pretty cool. So, I don't know a lot of casts that do that, but that was the kind of vibe that we had, and that's the kind of fun we had. So, that's that's something that, you know, when this movie, whatever happens, I'll remember that for the rest of my life. That was pretty cool.
ROHAN: You’ve already announced the fourth film, which is in development, and I don’t want to get too deep into spoilers since this film has a lot of surprises fans will enjoy - how did you guys approach setting up the next film in the series because the ending of this film lays out a lot of different paths?
RUBEN: I mean, I think in constructing these movies, ultimately, they're about the characters' journeys, and we've established this new crew who kind of earned their stripes in this film. And then the question is, where do they go from there, and what do they do next? And it's tricky, because we have so many different characters to service, but they're all under the umbrella of the Eye, which is this secret magic organization that's been touched upon in past films. And we go into a little bit more detail in this film, and so it's kind of not as much as what we want the characters to do, but what does the Eye need from them in future installments? And so, it'll be fun to see how it all plays out, but I can promise you it will be filled with magic and mystery and tricks and twists and turns, like all the past ones.
BOBBY: I think one thing I'm happy to tease out is that, you know, in the first movie, they're not fugitives yet, and so because they're not fugitives, they actually put on stage shows in front of, you know, the first show, in the first movie, is in front of like 20,000 people in Las Vegas, since that time, they're on the run. And so, we've had to sort of come up with ways for them to perform while they're on the run. And so now, by the time they get to the end of this movie, and everyone gets to see it, and sees how we've sort of shaken the storyline up, they get to perform now again, sort of, you know, in front of people. And so, I think that'll be really fun to kind of put on some real large scale epic magic, the kind of magic you can only see, you know, at a big, incredible Las Vegas show. But, also add the multiplier of great cinema. And so, I think that'll be something we're definitely going to have fun with. And then also, the movies have this great, you know, travel log to them. We've been to, you know, New Orleans and New York and Paris and Antwerp and Macau and Abu Dhabi and the south of France, and so, that's going to be part of it. We're coming up with some really cool places to stage magic where you've never seen magic staged before, so I'm happy to share that, but the rest will have to wait a couple of years, and then you'll see it.
ROHAN: Yeah, I'm very excited where it's going, because that last scene is so great - I was hoping you would do it for pretty much the entire movie!
BOBBY: I love that! Tell everybody that!
The Four Horsemen (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher) are back — to unite with a new generation of illusionists (Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa, Ariana Greenblatt) for their most global, high-stakes magical adventure yet. Their mission: Expose the corruption of Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike), a powerful diamond heiress with ties to arms dealers, traffickers, and warlords. Aided by the legendary Thaddeus (Morgan Freeman), the two generations of magicians must overcome their differences to try and defeat their cunning and dangerous adversary, in this magic-fueled heist filled with the franchise’s signature twists, turns, and thrilling reveals — along with some of the most thrilling illusions ever captured on film.