Race To Witch Mountain
The film is directed by Andy Fickman and stars Dwayne Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig, and Carla Gugino. Race to Witch Mountain is scheduled to be released on March 13, 2009.
Premise
Advancing the storyline from the 1975 film Escape to Witch Mountain, a Las Vegas cab driver (Dwayne Johnson) and a discredited astrophysicist (Carla Gugino) attempt to rescue two paranormal siblings (AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig) from the hands of a villainous man (Ciarán Hinds).
Production
In July 2007, Walt Disney Pictures hired Andy Fickman to direct Witch Mountain, a "modern re-imagining" to Escape to Witch Mountain, using a script by Matt Lopez. The following August, actor Dwayne Johnson was cast into a lead role, with filming scheduled to begin in March 2008. Fickman did not describe the film as a remake, defining his production as "a new chapter within the world of Witch Mountain".
The director also described the book in which the films are based as "a very cool dark thriller" and anticipated drawing elements from it that did not exist in the 1975 film. By March 2008, filmmakers were using a new script written by Mark Bomback. The film was re-titled Race to Witch Mountain, and it began filming in Los Angeles in the same month.
The convention center in Pomona, California was converted into the film's UFO Expo 9, and the interior of Witch Mountain was designed using photographs from a tour of NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain. The director sought assistance from UFO experts, the military, and CIA advisers to shape the elements of the film. He also introduced a new element in the remake, an extraterrestrial creature called Siphon. The creature was conceived by the design team who created the look for Alien and Predator.
Cast
Dwayne Johnson as Jack Bruno, a Las Vegas cab driver.
AnnaSophia Robb as Sara, sister to Seth, a girl with paranormal powers.
Alexander Ludwig as Seth, brother to Sara, a boy with paranormal powers.
Ciarán Hinds as the villain. Hinds described his character as a man in black, explaining, "I'm the head of the operation who's contacted directly by a man you never see...
He's responsible for it, and he'll do whatever needs to be done. That's how he sees it."
Carla Gugino as a discredited astrophysicist. Fired from her university, she is relegated to giving a lecture at a UFO conference about hard science. Fickman cast Gugino into the role since he was a fan of the short-lived television series Threshold, in which the actress starred.
Garry Marshall as a government fringe scientist and UFO conspiracy theorist.
Cheech Marin in an unnamed role.
Chris Marquette in an unnamed role.
Kim Richards as a roadhouse waitress.
Richards portrayed the girl, Tia Malone, in the 1975 film.
Ike Eisenmann as a sheriff. Birnes, the host of UFO Hunters, in a cameo.
Whitley Strieber, author of Communion, in a cameo.
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