escape to witch mountain Tagged Articles at Cinematical

From the star, director and studio behind The Game Plan comes... another movie pairing up Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson with kids! Okay, this one -- Race to Witch Mountain, a remake of Disney's own Escape to Witch Mountain from 1975 -- seems a fair bit more tolerable than that one was, as cab driver Johnson is forced to team up with UFO expert Carla Gugino on an unexpected mission to get two unique children (AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig) to the above-mentioned location of their spaceship.

A couple of things should be said for the trailer, which we've included after the jump.

1. There is an unavoidable watermark on it, but other than that, it seems to be a fully digital trailer and not bootlegged from sneaks of Bolt this past Saturday. (Okay, I get it: Star Trek is Star Trek... and you know who else pulls a very similar 'letting a vehicle crumple around you' trick? Bolt does.)
2. Said watermark and the YouTube premiere suggests that this hasn't been officially released by the studio yet, so I'd be willing to bet that this trailer gets taken down by the end of the day. Good luck!
3. More power to Johnson for throwing himself wholly into work like this, even if we can already see his character growing out of skepticism and towards accountability over the course of these two minutes. (Besides, Brendan Fraser can't hold a monopoly on all the family adventure hero roles.)

With that said, thanks to Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel for digging this up, and onto the trailer! Race to Witch Mountain opens next March.

Remember these tots, Tia and Tony? In 1975, they made an Escape to Witch Mountain to get away from a money-hungry millionaire. Now The Hollywood Reporter has posted that both Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann will be returning for Disney's reimagining, Race to Witch Mountain. Of course, they're a little too old to play Tia and Tony, so that job is for AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig. Instead, Richards will play "a waitress at a roadhouse called Rays, in a town called Stony Creek," while Eisenmann plays a sheriff.

Also added to the cast are Tom Everett Scott (Because I Said So), Chris Marquette (Fanboys), Billy Brown (Cloverfield), and Cheech Marin. The first three roles are all sorts of special -- Scott plays a medical specialist, Marquette plays a computer specialist, and Brown plays a military specialist working for the bad guy. Cheech, meanwhile, is a helpful mechanic.

There's nowhere, however, to race right yet. The film is getting released next Spring.

We're now two steps closer to Disney's 're-imagining' of the kid's classic, Escape to Witch Mountain. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Ciarán Hinds (Stop Loss) and Alexander Ludwig (The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising) are signed to star in Race to Witch Mountain, the update of John Hough's 1975 film. Witch Mountain focused on two orphans with paranormal abilities, and was based on the 1968 sci-fi novel by Alexander Key.

For those who didn't come of age wishing to be witchy orphans, the storyline focused on mind-bending siblings Tia and Tony, whose alien origins had them on the run from an evil millionaire. This will mark the second attempt at a remake, with the first being for TV back in 1995. Matt Lopez (She's the Man) was in charge of the re-write and Andy Fickman was signed to direct back in July. Casting for Race to Witch Mountain started back in August, when Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson signed on for a role as a part time cab-driver and protector to the siblings. A little while later, Anna Sophia Robb was hired to play one of the 'spooky kids'. I can only guess that now that Ludwig is on board he will be taking over the part of Tony and Hinds will play the evil millionaire.

When the book was first adapted, there were plenty of complaints that Disney ignored most of the darker elements of the story. But Fickman has promised that this time around he is going to make, "a pretty bad-ass ride." Probably not how I would have described a movie from the man who directed The Game Plan; but you never know. Race to Witch Mountain is scheduled for release March 13th, 2009.

Poor Kim Richards. The former child star wasn't in too many films, but already one of them has been remade (Assault on Precinct 13, in which she briefly appears before memorably being gunned down) and another is on its way to the recycle bin. It's her best remembered, too: Escape to Witch Mountain. Previously we heard that Andy Fickman (She's the Man) would be directing a new version of the 1975 Disney pic, which was already redone once, for television, in 1995, and that Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock), who stars in Fickman's new movie, The Game Plan, would be starring as a cab driver who picks up a pair of siblings with supernatural powers. Now we've got at least one of the siblings, the one that Richards played in the original and its first sequel (but not its sequel, where she was replaced by Growing Pains' Tracey Gold). According to MTV Movies Blog, AnnaSophia Robb (The Bridge to Terrabitha) has been cast in the new movie, titled only Witch Mountain, though whether or not her character will be named "Tia" was not revealed. Also as of yet unknown: who will play her brother, Tony.

The most interesting thing that was clarified was that Witch Mountain is not really a remake. Fickman told MTV that he didn't want to mess with something he loved as a kid, so instead the new movie is more like another chapter in the story of Witch Mountain (sounds like Robb could be a new character after all). The director also regurgitated the usual line about how people who have seen the original and people who haven't can all enjoy this next installment. Fickman also said his movie will be more like Alexander Key's novel, meaning it will be much darker in tone, and that The Rock will be the one who helps the kids elude an evil millionaire who seeks to exploit them. He fills the shoes of the original film's Eddie Albert, who Fickman believes was a laughable protector for Tia and Tony. The director promises the not-remake will be "a pretty bad-ass ride." You know, just as you'd expect from a movie featuring The Rock and children.

I guess it was only a matter of time. Last month, Jessica Barnes posted that the 1975 Disney classic Escape to Witch Mountain was going to be remade. This is the second round of remakes, since the first was done in 1995. Andy Fickman, the guy behind Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical and the upcoming childcare comedy The Game Plan, was tapped to direct. Considering the fact that The Rock stars in the latter, it's no surprise that Variety is now reporting that he's following Fickman and taking on a role in Mountain.

As long as the negotiations continue to go smoothly, Dwayne Johnson will take on the role of a Las Vegas cab driver who picks up the magical siblings. That's about all we know. How Vegas and cabbies fits in is anyone's guess. If you remember, the original is about a few kids with mental powers who find out that they are actually aliens. I hope I'm wrong, but I have this image of some super-corrupt man taking the kids and making them a Vegas show act. I guess I should just be happy that my favorite Disney kid flicks seem to be off the radar. Whatever the case, it looks like Johnson has found his niche -- busying himself with a collection of family and adult comedy. Now, c'mon, who's itching to see this? Anyone?

To be honest, there is very little I remember from Escape To Witch Mountain, so the upcoming remake doesn't really have me worried that another childhood memory is about to be ruined. The Hollywood Reporter recently announced that Andy Fickman has signed to direct an updated version of the 1975 film, based on Alexander Key's sci-fi novel of the same name. The story centered on two siblings with paranormal abilities who are forced to go on the run as they try to figure out their "interstellar ancestry." Directed by John Hough, the film starred Ray Milland and Eddie Albert, with Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann as the galactic duo.

A script for the remake has already been completed by Matt Lopez, and Disney seems to be keeping this project in the family, since Lopez also wrote the script for their upcoming Adam Sandler comedy, Bedtime Stories. This is also Fickman's latest in a series of deals with the mouse, having already completed The Game Plan with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and having just signed for the family comedy Pool Rats. Fickman also seems to be all about the remakes lately, having reportedly signed to direct the Fame remake for MGM. Now that he seems to be a little preoccupied, maybe they are going to have to start looking elsewhere to revive their 80's musical. Disney has reportedly marked Witch Mountain as a high-profile project. Since they already have their script and their director, we should get word of casting soon.