Sebastian Silva’s phenomenal 2009 film La Nana went criminally under-seen in the US despite being nominated for a Foreign Language Golden Globe, but with the help of a B-list American actor his next project should garner more attention. Variety reports that the Spanish filmmaker will team with Michael Cera for Magic, Magic, an indie thriller that he’ll write and direct. Mike White and Christine Vachom are producing.
The logline says that the movie will center on a girl who begins to lose her mental faculties while vacationing in Chile with a group of friends. She tries to get her friends’ attention, but they ignore her until it’s too late. Some friends, huh? My guess is that Cera’s character will intervene and try to help but will face the full terror of the crazed woman all by himself. To be honest, this could be the makings of a pretty cool horror pic, but I doubt that the film will go down that road.
The source notes that the female lead is not yet cast, and the film basically hinges on whether or not the chosen actress can deliver a believable mental breakdown. Having seen La Nana, I can say that Silva knows a thing or two about working with actresses and drawing the most psychologically and emotionally truthful performance from them, so Magic, Magic could potentially be a bigger deal for the undetermined co-star than Cera, who to date has not proven that he has anything but dry wit to offer. The reason he was good in Scott Pilgrim was because he had talented actresses and co-stars to work off of, so he’d better be praying that Silva can land someone on par with Mary Elizabeth Winstead or Anna Kendrick. As a matter of fact, Silva should just cast on of them; they’d be perfect for the part.
Source: Variety
