Are you ready to take the best job in town?

By Karla Vadillo

On July 14th Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films proudly released the action-adventure “THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE” directed by Jon Turteltaub and starring Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer, Monica Bellucci and Toby Kebbell.

Dave (Jay Baruchel) is just an average college student, or so it appears, until the sorcerer Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) recruits him as his reluctant protégé and gives him a crash course in the art and science of magic. As he prepares for a battle against the forces of darkness in modern-day Manhattan, Dave finds it is going to take all of the courage he can muster to survive his training, save the city and get the girl as he becomes THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE.

This movie is the seventh time that Jerry Bruckheimer and Nicolas Cage team up for working. Some of the titles of their films together include: “National Treasure”, “National Treasure: the Book of Secrets”, “Con Air”, “Gone in 60 seconds”, “G-Force” and “The Rock”.

Here are some fun facts about the movie:

• Balthazar’s Blake (Nicolas Cage) favorite automobile is an original Rolls-Royce Phantom 1935. His engine is known as Merlin and was used in the British planes called Spitfire that helped Great Britain win Second World War. For the stunt sequences an exact replica of the real Phantom was used. During the filming of this movie in the streets for New York, the Phantom became a sensational attraction for tourists.

• The four royal wolves that Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina) brings to hunt down David S. (Jay Baruchel) are called: Bandit, Sierra, Samson and Takoda. They live in a farm in New Jersey.

• The eagle gargoyle on top of the Chrysler building comes to life in two ways: the first one is with its original size mounted on top of a platform and controlled by a computer and built by the special effects coordinator and winner of the Academy Award ® John Frazier. The second one is a computer generated version created by the special effects supervisor, John Nelson with the help of Asylum Visual Effects co.

• The book of spells weighed over 50 pounds and for the movie, other versions of this book were created. Including a replica of only 2 pounds approximately and another, water resistance one (that also floated) for a sequence in particular. For the pages to looked middle age from…experts aged them with methods that included: rub them with sand paper and submerge them in tea.

Nicolas Cage (Balthazar Blake) is one of the most versatile actors of all times. He is able to pull of the most moving performance portraying an angel or bring you to tears while acting on Leaving Las Vegas. He will soon co star two Lionsgate movies to be released soon: Seasons of the Witch and Kick Ass, this last one produced by Mathew Vaughn. For this film he is a sorcerer who finally found his apprentice.

Jon Turteltaub feels regarding this movie that the grace of it resides in the sense that sorcerers and witches are alive and safe in our times. If witches and sorcerers existed in times of King Arthur with Merlin…why not today?

In theatres starting this Friday July 16th “Sorcerer´s Apprentice.” Enjoy a great ride, filled with amazing special effects, great performances and tons of action and adventure.