What does it take to make magic cool? (David Blaine has been asking this question for years.) Is it daring, Houdini-esque escapes, or sleight of hand card tricks, or elaborate illusions? Or would it be cool if every trick—sorry, illusion—ended with Criss Angel burning down a Hot Topic? Two Now You See Me movies have been unable to make magic cool in film—failing to capitalize on the momentum of The Prestige—but there’s a movie coming out in 2017 that just might do the trick.
The teaser trailer for Sleight dropped yesterday and it looks like Chronicle but with magicians. Jacob Latimore stars as Bo, a street magician who might have actual magical ability. The teaser is not forthcoming about plot, but a pull quote in the teaser says, “Chronicle meets Iron Man”, which is intriguing. I definitely see the Chronicle influence—Sleight seems to have the same stripped-down aesthetic—but I’m not getting Iron Man out of this teaser. Unless it’s the general superhero vibe of a person using a special power to right wrongs.
Sleight premiered back at Sundance, but it won’t come out till April 2017. Interestingly, one of the co-distributors is WWE Films—yes, that WWE, as in professional wrestling. So this is a Chronicle-ish movie about a magician who might also be a superhero that is brought to you in part by professional wrestling. Consider my curiosity piqued.
Attached - Jacob Latimore at a PEOPLE event in October.
