Magicians don’t like it if you start telling people how to pull a rabbit out of a hat, and everyone from Penn & Teller to the Masked Magician on ‘Breaking the Magician’s Code: Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed’ have felt the wrath of their fellow prestidigitators for telling people the secrets behind the tricks. Now it seems Morgan Freeman wants to do the same. Well, sort of.
According to Variety, he’s signed up to star in Now You See Me, in which a group of illusionists known as The Four Horsemen pull off daring bank heists during their performances and then shower their audiences with the profits. However, a team of FBI agents is out to stop their show, which is growing increasingly popular.
Freeman is coming onboard to play an ex-magician named Thaddeus, who has begun to make a career exploiting and revealing the secrets behind illusions, making him a despised figure in the magician community. It seems likely then that he’ll be someone the FBI uses to try and get ahead of the Horsemen, although this being Hollywood, expect him to have a change of heart at some point.
Louis Leterrier (Clash Of The Titans) is directing from a script by Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt. Freeman won’t be alone on-screen though, as the increasingly impressive cast already includes Jesse Eisenberg, Melanie Laurent, Mark Ruffalo and Amanda Seyfried.