Now You See Me Director Louis Leterrier on Possible Return for Third Film

Should Louis Leterrier ever get his shot at another Now You See Me flick, he'll be approaching the production with a whole new mindset. After dealing with the world of practical effects on Netflix's The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Leterrier says he'd take a more streamlined approach to the world of magic and illusions set up in the Now You See Me franchise.

"I will never not do practical effects at least. I learned so much from puppetry," Leterrier said in a recent interview with DiscussingFilm. "You have to understand, the whole [Dark Crystal] set was puppeted. Not only the heroes themselves but the flowers, the wings, everything. The whole set became animated."

That's when he tied it into Now You See Me or another one of his action-packed features.

"So doing another Now You See Me or something similar, If I want to do another movie with magic, I would bring practical effects into that," the filmmaker added. "There's something also very organic about it, practical effects and having people behind stuff. For example, there was a moment in The Dark Crystal where Brea unleashes some books. She was in the library, all the paper and books start rotating around her. The background was CG, but the foreground, all the pieces of paper, books, and things flying around were puppeted by people with rods underneath running around."

Even though it was billed as a prequel limited series, Netflix sent The Dark Crystal to the chopping block last month. As far as Now You See Me goes, a third movie has been in the works since Now You See Me 2 debuted in 2016. The franchise is produced and distributed by Lionsgate's Summit Entertainment and the company announced earlier this year it had hired Eric Warren Singer to pen the script for the threequel. Singer's next movie out is Top Gun: Maverick.

"Eric has always been fascinated with the fine art of deception and illusion in all of its forms and he came to us with a great story that takes the mythology of Now You See Me and pushes The Four Horsemen to a whole new level with our key returning cast and new characters," said Nathan Kahane, president of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, in a statement when the threequel was first announced. "The Now You See Me franchise has been built on keeping the audience surprised and guessing. Any great magician knows, you can't keep doing the same tricks. And Eric and his team of illusionists have something special up their sleeve for this new film."

Now You See Me and Now You See Me 2 are available wherever movies are sold.

Cover photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic