‘Now You See Me’ Cast Not Yet Signed For Sequel; Director Laments That Reuniting The Stars Is A ‘Nightmare’

The summer hit "Now You See Me" was quite a surprise as it stood toe-to-toe with more established franchises.

It does have an interesting heist movie feel with a twist ending, and the cast was superb. Jesse Eisenberg of "The Social Network" fame was the charismatic lead star. Isla Fisher was an incredible siren and Woody Harrelson did what he does best - keep everyone on edge. Dave Franco also gave a standout performance as the young upstart magician and Mark Ruffalo(The Hulk in "The Avengers") as the cop in pursuit was brilliant. There was also Morgan Freeman to validate the movie.

As a sleeper hit, "Now You See Me" was not expected to have a sequel. It was more of a wait and see approach. They were also not presumptous to leave a hanging story where a sequel is required.

Another important factor in making the sequel is that none of the actors have pre-signed for it. That is the predicament that director Louis Letterier is facing. In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph:

"We are talking to everyone. No one signs onto sequels without approving the script. It's amazing to do a movie with a cast like this - putting it back together is a nightmare. Everyone is extremely busy and one thing an actor doesn't like to do is stay at home, waiting for the phone to ring, so getting all the actors back is a tough one."

He narrates that the challenge stems from  raising the bar that was set by the first movie. It had to be just as good, if not better. It also needed to offer something new: "The first one was mostly in America so we are debating where to shoot the sequel - we want to shoot it somewhere else. I'm coming to London to see if we can do something there, then France and other places. Jesse is the one who asks me, 'What's happening? Why is it taking so long?' It's a very tough one to crack because we want to do a sequel that's as good, if not better than the first one."

The 40-year old French director admits that they were overwhelmed by the reception despite the quality of the material. "We were so happy and dumbfounded . It's one of those rare moments where you think, 'This one actually worked'."