If you aren’t already aware of who Criss Angel is, then just know he’s kind of like David Blaine, except talented and less of a jerk. He has a show on A&E and a Las Vegas act, but now it looks like the Mind Freak magician will get his own movie too.
In a recent interview with CB’s TV appendage here he revealed that he’s signed on to do a movie version of the comic strip Mandrake. Angel says, “It’s gonna kind of be like a kind of cool realm of The Crow but different of Mandrake the magician coming to life. I’m designing and creating the visual effects for that, as well as going to be acting in it.”
I don’t know if that means he’ll be playing the lead in the film, but since he already dresses like The Crow, that seems like a logical assumption. He’s also no stranger to acting. Magic is half acting anyway, but he’s also played a killer on ‘CSI: New York’, where he got pretty decent reviews. A Criss Angel led film might not be so bad, especially one focused on subject material he’s already familiar with: magicians.
Of other magic-based movies Criss says that “normally magic hasn’t translated very well with storytelling. I mean live it’s been disastrous if you look at certain shows that try to incorporate it throughout the course of the last twenty years.” He plans to make Mandrake different. “Being involved from the beginning in the creation of the script, and of the characters and effects, really gives me an opportunity to work with the director to make sure that it’s really seamless with how they coexist and work hand in hand, and how one supports the other and it’s not contrived and it’s not cheesy.”
By not cheesy, he means avoiding the over-use of CGI and going with practical effects. He says, “I think with my show and how it’s based in reality it would be interesting to try and have that kind of transfer over into a movie. So that when you’re shooting this stuff it’s shot practical, and people can really get a sense of what’s happening and that it is really real. It has that quality about it, that spirit, you can’t get from CGI.”
Can a street magician carry a movie? Why not. It has to be easier than ripping a woman in half.
