For several years the idea of a movie based on the classic character, Mandrake The Magician, has been doing the rounds of Hollywood, but nobody has quite figured out how to make it work. However, Tinseltown hasn’t given up on the idea and now it’s ended up at Warner Bros., with THR reporting that Sacha Baron Cohen is now attached to star, and will develop the movie alongside Tropic Thunder writer Etan Cohen.
Lee Falk created Mandrake in 1934, with the illusionist a powerful hypnotist who uses his abilities to fight crime with Lothar, one of the strongest men in the world. Universal Pictures produced a 12-part serial based on the comic strip in 1939, but the character has not been seen on the big screen since then.
Disney owned rights for several years in the early 2000s, before they were acquired by Baldwin Entertainment and Hyde Park. Atlas Entertainment picked up the rights in 2009, and even commissioned a script by Janet Peoples and David Webb Peoples (12 Monkeys), before they teamed up with Warner Bros. It now looks like they may be trying to take things in a more comedic direction.
Synopsis: ‘In Disney’s “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” an all-new spectacular adventure featuring the unforgettable characters from Lewis Carroll’s beloved stories, Alice returns to the whimsical world of Underland and travels back in time to save the Mad Hatter. Directed by James Bobin, who brings his own unique vision to the spectacular world Tim Burton created on screen in 2010 with “Alice in Wonderland,” the film is written by Linda Woolverton based on characters created by Lewis Carroll and produced by Joe Roth, Suzanne Todd and Jennifer Todd and Tim Burton with John G. Scotti serving as executive producer.
It’s been a couple of years since we last heard about Sacha Baron Cohen’s plans for a movie called The Lesbian. Many thought the film had been abandoned, but it’s turns out it’s still alive and not just that – it’s a musical! That certainly helps explain why it’s taking so long to develop.
Synopsis: ‘In the action-comedy Grimsby, when Sebastian Graves (Mark Strong), a deadly MI6 agent, takes on a mission to prevent a massive global terror attack, he must unfortunately reunite with his long-lost brother Nobby (Sacha Baron Cohen), a sweet but dimwitted English football hooligan… proving that behind every great spy is an embarrassing sibling.
A few days ago the first trailer for the sequel, Alice Through The Looking Glass arrived, which has now been followed by these rather cool pics, which show us four returning characters alongside Sacha Baron Cohen’s villain new character, Time.
Even Disney was surprised when Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland made over a billion dollars at the box office, but it ensured a sequel quickly went into pre-production. Although its taken longer than originally planned, Alice Through The Looking Glass is now on its way, and we have the first trailer to prove it.
It’s not too surprising that Disney’s planned sequel to Alice In Wonderland is now going by the title Through The Looking Glass, as while Tim Burton’s movie was technically a sequel to Lewis Carroll’s original tale, Look Glass was what the author’s follow-up was called.