Hollywood’s Magic Castle, Home of the Academy of Magical Arts, is Conjuring Up a Movie

Posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2012 by Russ Fischer

Don’t confuse this with Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Night at the Museum-style film in which a Disney theme park comes to life at night. No, Magic Castle — or whatever this film may be called — is based on a private nightclub in Hollywood housed in a century-old building (old for LA standards!) that hosts magicians and their guests. The Franklin Ave. mansion houses the headquarters of the Academy of Magical Arts Inc. and “serves as a nightclub and performance space for magicians.”

Now the company that runs the club has signed with CAA and is looking to promote the club’s identity in TV, film, video games, and other media. And so Ted Field (Arachnophobia, Jumanji, Cocktail) and Radar Pictures are developing a film around the club. Read More »

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Facebook Game ‘Mafia Wars’ Being Developed as Feature Film?

Posted on Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 by Russ Fischer

Update: Risky Business contacted Radar exec Mike Weber who claims this rumor is not true but jokes “it’s starting to sound like a good idea for a movie.”

Briefly: I haven’t played the Facebook game Mafia Wars, so I can’t offer any insight into how it might become a movie. (I’ve hidden all Mafia Wars actions in my feed, so I don’t even see the game any longer.) But Pajiba is reporting that the popular social networking app is making the leap to the big screen, with Ted Field and Radar Pictures sending the project out to writers. Let’s see who they get — I wouldn’t have expected anything out of a Lego movie, either, before Phil Lord and Chris Miller were hired.

Still, the easy assumption is that this will lead to a pretty generic mob movie in which one guy starts off small and builds a ladder to power out of the dead bodies of his competitors. Think a seriously watered down Goodfellas, with a video game slant. Where’s the ‘dislike’ button?

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