Director Andy Fickman, who had just completed the hit comedy “The Game Plan” for Walt Disney Pictures, heard that Gunn was contemplating a reworking of the “Witch Mountain” franchise. “I loved `Escape to Witch Mountain’; it was one of my all-time favorite films as a kid,” says Fickman. “Nothing excited me more than the movie as well as reading the book it was based upon. So when I was given an opportunity after `The Game Plan’ to continue my relationship with Disney, I told them I wanted to make `Race to Witch Mountain’ as memorable for audiences today as it was for me in 1975.”
For Fickman, having a fascination for the unexplained and inexplicable began almost at birth-he was born in Roswell, New Mexico, a small town made infamous by a supposed crash of a UFO that the government and the military allegedly covered up. And in “Race to Witch Mountain,” that predilection for the mysterious (along with the Roswellian theme of the collision of two worlds) proves central to the plot of the high-octane story and highly enjoyable storyline.
It is, indeed, that element of the ordinary meeting the extraordinary that he found so compelling. “`Race to Witch Mountain’ is a great action-adventure story,” says Fickman. “It is a fantastic journey in which the most unlikely of heroes end up saving not one world, but two worlds.”
Scenes Tailored for Dwayne Johnson
Having signed on to the production, Fickman went to work tailoring stunts and action sequences that might interest his “The Game Plan” star, Dwayne Johnson, in coming aboard the project.
“Having Dwayne Johnson be involved would be a dream come true, I thought,” Fickman says. “He showed so much heart and warmth and charm in `The Game Plan,’ and I wanted to combine that with more action than he has ever seen in one movie. I wanted him to see that this new film would mean bigger stunts, scarier thrills, greater characters and more adventure than ever before. I wanted him to know we were racing up a much bigger mountain.”
As it turns out, the film was not a hard sell to Johnson, who was a fan as well of the original movies in the 1970s. “I got a phone call from Andy, who invited me to lunch to discuss a new project for us to do together,” Johnson says. “We sat down and he asked me if I was familiar with `Witch Mountain.’ Not only was I familiar, I told him, I loved the films when I was a kid. In fact, I had just watched `Escape to Witch Mountain’ with my little girl! When Andy pitched me this great story that made the whole thing a compelling and contemporary thrill ride, I was in. I said, `Where do I sign up, coach?’”
The character of Jack Bruno, a cab driver and ex-con who has gone straight, didn’t exist in either earlier film. “Jack is a cab driver in Las Vegas who has been dealt a bad hand in life,” Gunn explains. “He’s on a hamster wheel, driving up and down the Vegas Strip, trying to lay low in life. Everything changes for him once two children jump in his cab. The next thing he knows, he is being chased by men in black SUVs as well as an alien hunter from another planet. What he doesn’t realize is that these kids are really something special and will change his life forever.”
What was appealing to Johnson about Jack was his character’s shot at redemption in a city that is known for making fortunes change in an instant. “Jack Bruno is a guy who has struggled to stay on the right path in life for some time,” Johnson says. “The only personal relationships he has are taking fares from point A to point B in Vegas. But once these extraordinarily gifted kids step into his cab, he gets an opportunity to do something that is really, really special. And that is the opportunity to save the world!
“I have a real affinity for Disney,” Johnson continues, “and I was excited about the great, intense entertainment in the film. The first 10 to 15 minutes of the movie is like an amazing roller coaster and, once you get on it, it never stops … but the action is merged with all the qualities that make up the Disney brand: heart and family and humor, along with a touch of magic.”
Brother, Sister Aliens
The central characters of the two alien children are on a quest with a clear goal and a very short timetable to achieve it. They must retrieve a device left on Earth by their parents that holds the secret to saving not only their world but ours as well.
Seth and Sara possess some very powerful paranormal abilities. “Sara has the power of telepathy as well as telekinesis,” Gunn says. “She can read your mind or move things with hers. Seth, her brother, has the power to change the density of his body. He can become like a ghost and slip through walls or become as hard as metal so anything can run into him but not harm him. They are not scared or weak but focused, capable and strong. The stakes are very high for them, and therefore they take a while to decide if they can trust a human like Jack with their mission.”
Two very talented and resourceful teenage actors were needed to carry the film and create new characters that, while original, contained echoes of their popular predecessors, Tony and Tia. Almost immediately, Fickman found his perfect Sara in AnnaSophia Robb, who had recently acted in Walt Disney Pictures’ memorable fantasy “Bridge to Terabithia” as well as other films such as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “The Reaping.”
“I thought AnnaSophia, who broke hearts in `Bridge to Terabithia,’ would be remarkable as Sara,” Fickman recalls. “She was the first person we cast after we had Dwayne.”
Robb, a 15-year-old from placeStateColorado, wanted to play Sara from the moment she walked into Fickman’s office to talk about the role. “Andy had just finished `The Game Plan’ and his office was covered in pictures from that movie of Dwayne and Madison Pettis,” says Robb. “He really didn’t have a finished script at that time to show me. I was so excited just to be considered at that time, and as we went along, the script took shape. By the time we started to cast the movie, I walked back into his office and saw pictures of Dwayne and aliens and little UFO toys…and me! I knew then that I was going to be involved. It was an honor to be considered first all along.”
Finding a young actor to play the enigmatic Seth would prove to be more of a challenge. Scores of young actors vied for the role, but no one stepped up as being the clear choice. Then Fickman remembered a 15-year-old Canadian actor named Alexander Ludwig.
Ludwig, who hails from West Vancouver, British Columbia, says: “Apparently Andy was releasing `The Game Plan’ and wanted to check out the competition for his opening weekend. So he went to see my film, `The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising,” which I had just shot in Eastern Europe and was my first starring role in a feature film. When it came time to cast `Race to Witch Mountain,’ he remembered me and arranged for my audition. I loved working with him immediately. I later met Dwayne and AnnaSophia for a final audition and we really connected. Not only did we have some serious chemistry, but we really had a lot of fun.”
The aspect Ludwig most liked about the character of Seth was his innate distrust, at first, for any human he and his sister encountered, especially Jack Bruno.
“My character, Seth, and my sister, Sara, come from a different planet,” Ludwig says. “We are on Earth to save both planets from being destroyed. We are involved in a big race to get back to our planet in time to save the day. My character is a serious kind of guy, not very trusting. He has an interesting character arc and becomes a lot more loving and caring as the film progresses. But most of the time, he is opposed to working with Jack Bruno, Dwayne’s character, and there is a great deal of tension between the two of us.”
Robb says: “My character has a magical ability to read minds-I am telepathic and telekinetic, I have the ability to move things with my mind. So that is great fun, to play a girl with amazing abilities. Also, I often say what somebody is thinking before they can get the words out, so there is also a lot of comedy in my role. My brother, played by Alex, and I are a team. Without both of us working together, we would not be able to complete our mission. I care for humans and I learn to love someone new, Jack Bruno, and really trust him. Loving a human is a new experience for me.”
Not Your Ordinary Astrophysicist
With the key roles of Seth and Sara in place, Fickman and Gunn focused on casting the many other parts in the film. They concentrated initially on who would play a beautiful and brainy astrophysicist, Dr. Alex Friedman, who is giving a presentation at a UFO conference when she meets Jack Bruno.
“We were lucky to have Carla Gugino walk through our door,” Gunn says. “She is very much like her character: smart, pretty and funny. Her character needed strength, and she was perfect for it. We could tell from the very first scenes we shot with Carla and Dwayne that there would be a real cohesive bond between these two people.”
The character was created in the screenplay to mirror some of the real science-based believers within the burgeoning UFO community, according to Fickman. “Dr. Alex Friedman is a bit of an amalgam of several real UFO experts operating today within the UFO community,” Fickman says. “In doing all of our research, we wanted to fuse the science and knowledge these people bring to their field inside this character. She’s a nice contrast to the rough-and-tumble Jack Bruno and also provides a bit of maternal guidance for Seth and Sara.”
For Gugino, meeting Fickman for the first time cemented her interest in being a part of the new “Witch Mountain” film. “I was already a big fan of the original films,” Gugino says. “But when I met Andy I realized he was such a collaborator and creative force. He was already very well-versed in the UFO culture and the paranormal, which gave me a strong point from which to build my character. I also thought there would be some great comedy in putting this discredited astrophysicist and ex-con cab driver together to explore their two different perspectives on the world.”
Playing the role of a cerebral scientist, the actress began to wonder if she was getting to be somewhat typecast. “Now I’ve played an astrophysicist, a neurosurgeon, a rocket scientist and a contingency analyst,” Gugino says. “But what I love about playing Alex is that she is also a total goofball. I like the fact that when we meet her, she has gone from lecturing at Harvard and Stanford to speaking at the UFO convention in Las Vegas, but only because she truly believes in her information and findings. She believes in life on other planets, even if that makes her a pariah of sorts.”
For the role of the crusty UFO specialist, Dr. Donald Harlan, the filmmakers had just one actor in mind: Garry Marshall. “As Garry plays Dr. Harlan, he is the antithesis to Alex,” Gunn says. “Where Alex is all about science fact, Dr. Harlan is all about science fiction. But he plays a very important role in getting our heroes into the secret Witch Mountain government facility. Garry is also one of the funniest men I have ever met, and he brings a truly wonderful, funny and eccentric character to Dr. Harlan.”
Although primarily known for his skilled writing and directing for both television (“Happy Days,” “Mork and Mindy”) and feature films (“Pretty Woman,” “The Princess Diaries”), Marshall has also enjoyed a celebrated career as an actor. In “Race to Witch Mountain” his character owns a totem very important to the fans of the original “Escape to Witch Mountain”: the Winnebago motor home, owned by Eddie Albert’s Jason O’Day character in the first film.
“I guess you could say my character has something in common with Eddie Albert’s in the first film, and that is living in the same Winnebago,” Marshall says. “Only I have a Bronx accent, very different from Eddie. I enjoy the fact that my character is very eccentric. One of the reasons I took this role was that my own children enjoyed the original films, and now my grandchildren will enjoy this new one.”
Creating Strong Antagonists
It was important to the filmmakers that they create strong antagonists to match the charisma of the film’s heroes. In the original films, celebrated actors such as Ray Milland, Donald Pleasance, Christopher Lee and Bette Davis played those parts. In “Race to Witch Mountain,” it was popular Irish actor Ciarán Hinds playing the government’s lead UFO investigator, the no-nonsense Henry Burke.
Hinds, a success in films (“There Will Be Blood”), on television (playing Julius Caesar in the HBO series “Rome”) and in theater (Broadway’s recent Tony nominee for Best Dramatic Play), looked forward to creating the sinister yet earnest character of Burke, a man whose whole life has been dedicated to finally capturing beings from another world.
“He is a part of a very hidden organization, a group charged with working against any sort of extraterrestrial invasion,” Hinds says. “They don’t know what is out there, but they are vigilant in case something comes their way. He has been at the helm a long time, and he finally has a chance to grab hold of these creatures and find out if they are a threat or not.”
Burke’s ace in the hole is that he has recovered Seth and Sara’s spaceship, hiding it deep within the caverns of Witch Mountain.
“His primary interest is what he can learn from the spacecraft and the teens, using them to our government’s advantage,” Gunn explains. “These kids are ultimately an experiment to him and his team.”
Rounding out Burke’s team are a medical expert, Matheson (played by Tom Everett Scott); a computer expert, Pope (played by Christopher Marquette); and a combat specialist, Carson (played by Billy Brown).
Connecting to Fans of Original “Witch Mountain” Films
For fans of the older “Witch Mountain” films, Fickman felt the need to create smaller roles that would connect them to the new adventures in “Race to Witch Mountain.”
The role of a car mechanic, played by famed comic actor Cheech Marin, was named Eddie as an homage to Eddie Albert, star of “Escape to Witch Mountain.” Two key actors to participate were the performers who had created the roles of the original alien children, Tony and Tia: Iake Eissinmann (who initially spelled his name Ike Eisenmann) and Kim Richards.
“The first question I was always asked was: `Are Kim and Iake coming back?’” Fickman says. “That’s why it wasn’t really a movie for me until I had the opportunity to talk to both of them on the phone, then meet them and get them to be a part of this new world. After all, they were in two of my all-time favorite movies. I always wanted to be like Tony and Tia.”
The director created two pivotal roles for the actors. Richards would play sympathetic waitress Tina at Ray’s Tavern in the small town of placeCityStony Creek and Eissinmann would play the town’s lawman, Sheriff Antony. Stony Creek is the same town that Tia and Tony were trying to get to in the 1975 film “Escape to Witch Mountain.” Being back to shoot at Walt Disney Studios, where scenes of the original films were produced, proved to be an exciting adventure for both actors.
“The whole experience was a wonderful dream come true for me,” says Richards, who recently co-starred in the film “Black Snake Moan.” “When I left work each day, I felt incredible. I would say to my family that I had another fantastic day on Witch Mountain!”
For Eissinmann, the sensation of being back on the Disney lot was overwhelming. Now a successful voiceover artist as well as the founder of his own digital animation production company, Mighty Mojo Studios in Florida, the actor says: “I would look around and see the space my original trailer was parked in, and where Kim and I attended school, and where Kim and I played together between takes. We shot most of our interior scenes and visual effects scenes from `Escape to Witch Mountain’ in some of the same buildings we were working in during this new film. It was such a great opportunity for us then as well as now.”
Production Commences
Once the cast was in place, production was ready to commence on “Race to Witch Mountain.” The filmmakers determined that, for logistical reasons, most of the film would be shot in California, with two weeks planned for Las Vegas, Nevada.
Fickman and production designer David J. Bomba (who had collaborated on the films “She’s the Man” and “The Game Plan”) planned massive sets that would be constructed at Disney Studios as well as on location. Genevieve Tyrrell, who had worked with both men on “The Game Plan,” created the costumes while veteran stunt coordinator Scott Rogers (“Spider-Man 3”) collaborated on the cutting-edge physical stunts.
A new menace was created for “Race to Witch Mountain”: the Siphon, a humanoid bred on Seth and Sara’s planet as a ruthless hunter whose assignment is to stop the teenagers at any cost. For the creation of a new alien villain that would be as original as it would be sinister, the production turned to famed monster makers Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr., partners in the special effects firm Amalgamated Dynamics Incorporated (ADI).
ADI had created and operated many memorable screen creatures, from the jungle beasts of “Jumanji” to the otherworldly beings in “Alien vs. Predator.” For the Siphon, filmmakers wanted a tough and versatile adversary to go up against the physicality of Dwayne Johnson, known for his expert stunt work in such films as “The Scorpion King” and “The Rundown,” among others.
“We all agreed that the Siphon had to be a real monster, not just a computer-generated effect,” Johnson says. “So we went to ADI, which had the best track record for creating out-of-this-world physical beings. They really did a great job in creating this very real, six-foot-six hunting machine. As an actor it is so important to be able to see what you are fighting, not just to react to points on a green screen. I love the fact the Siphon has so many weapons at his disposal, making him a very worthy opponent for Jack Bruno.”
Stunt coordinator (and 2nd unit director) Scott Rogers needed a versatile suit for the Siphon so the stunt performer inside could move easily and be as comfortable as possible over the long days of shooting. Stunt man Paul Darnell portrayed the Siphon in all stunt scenes, while Woodruff played it in other sequences.
“Having done stunts in similar suits, I knew what to expect,” Rogers says. “You need a special skill set and personality to deal with the claustrophobia and the heat. On top of that, you need the performance. Luckily we found stunt man Paul Darnell, who has a fluid, catlike ability to move and jump while also being strong enough to perform the tougher stunts.”
The Siphon was created with lightweight material such as sponge rubber and nylon spandex, allowing maximum movement for the actor inside while housing an impressive array of weapons on its arms. The versatility of the suit came in handy when shooting stunts that literally blew the stunt man off his feet.
Rogers’ other challenges involved the film’s intense car chases, which the filmmakers designed to be on a par with the groundbreaking vehicle sequences in “The Bourne Supremacy”-some of which had been performed on screen in that film by Rogers himself.
For a sequence in which Jack, Seth and Sara are chased through the desert by three menacing SUVs, Johnson did a lot of his own driving aided by a stunt vehicle called the Go Mobile, a specialized camera car that integrates the actor with the action instead of shooting the actor from a separate trailing vehicle. “I loved being strapped into the Go Mobile,” Johnson says. “Scott Rogers devised all these action scenes that literally put me right in the middle, especially the car chases. I was so happy to be able to push the stunt envelope again and do things I always wanted to do physically.”
Working with an actor with the physicality of Johnson was also a plus for Rogers. “Usually I am trying to make actors look better than they really are,” Rogers says. “But Dwayne is such a good athlete and so quick with his hands, he made it easy for us. He was infectious, too. Even Gugino was asking if she could do more and more of her own stunts.”
Production Design Creates Sci-Fi Look
For the teens’ space craft, production designer David J. Bomba wanted to give the craft an original design yet stay within boundaries of what the public has come to recognize as a flying saucer.
“While we wanted our landing craft to be a sort of flying saucer, I wanted to make it a new variation of what everyone has become accustomed to,” Bomba says. “Andy wanted specific light patterns and movements. I wanted to do away with the usual dials and levers inside the ship, so we went with what we thought a superior intelligence would use, like touch pads and screens. For the Siphon ship, we used a much more angular, stealthy design as would befit a warrior’s ship.”
Another set to challenge the art department was the aliens’ underground lab, a futuristic Garden of Eden used by Seth and Sara’s parents years before to create new ways to grow and oxygenate plant life, a function vital to their parched, globally warmed home planet. The lab was accessed through a secret succession of tunnels, with an entry through an unlikely appliance: the open door of an old refrigerator in the kitchen of an abandoned desert cabin.
“The underground lab was supposed to be an experimental world the kids’ parents created to study the secrets of life on Earth,” Bomba says. “They wanted to discover what was needed to re-grow plant life since their own planet was barren. When one hears the word `laboratory,’ one thinks of Bunsen burners and beakers. I wanted it to be much more organic. Since these are aliens and using alien methods, I created these huge pulsating pods to serve as their Petri dishes. The idea was that they were using four elements-water, air, earth and fire-to re-create the basics of new life. These are all contained in a balloon-type mechanism that resembles a breathing, glowing plant pod.”
A more familiar, yet no less bizarre, set presented a huge design challenge for the film’s technicians: the colorful and vibrant UFO convention, set in Las Vegas but actually filmed in Pomona, California. In his quest for authenticity, director (and UFO enthusiast) Fickman populated the booths with real UFO celebrities as well as many business people who actually sell their wares at conventions worldwide.
“We did a lot of research on past UFO conventions,” Fickman says. “They are truly fantastic and so visual, one part ComicCon, one part science fair, one part space camp. I thought it would be entertaining to have, among all these people dressed as extraterrestrials, two little blond kids who are really aliens walking among them unnoticed.”
The production design team, including art director John R. Jensen, set decorator Patrick Cassidy as well as costume designer Genevieve Tyrrell, used inspiration from real UFO conventions and added otherworldly touches of their own. With so many people dressed as lobster men, E.T.s and storm troopers, who would notice a Siphon in their midst?
“We made sure there were so many things to see and so many people milling about in strange costumes that the actors would be able to blend in,” Bomba says.
Fickman also invited some of the elite members of the real-life UFO hierarchy to attend, including Bill Birnes (publisher of UFO Magazine and host of the popular television series “UFO Hunters”) and his wife, Nancy; Dr. Roger Leir (alien implant specialist and lecturer); Giorgio Tsoukalos (editor of Legendary Times Magazine and a paleo-SETI researcher); and Whitley Strieber (author of “Communion,” “Wolfen” and “The Hunger,” as well as one of the most famous alleged alien abductees).
“Andy convinced my wife, Anne, and me to participate in his film while we all met for lunch,” Strieber says. “As it turned out, Andy knew a lot about UFOs and thought it would be funny if Anne and I were manning a booth at the film’s UFO convention. We really enjoyed ourselves.”
Through a special association with Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, the movie company set up shop among real-life gamblers and merrymakers for two weeks on the Las Vegas Strip. The film’s design team embellished the interior of the casino with set pieces and video screens, but the majority of what is on screen is pure Vegas. Other familiar Las Vegas haunts were used, such as downtown Las Vegas and the neon cascade known as the Las Vegas Strip (on which Johnson and Gugino filmed late night cab rides).
Back in Saugus, California, production designer Bomba created the majority of the Witch Mountain secret underground government facility, a lair that would eventually house not only the alien teenagers, but their captured spaceship as well.
“We did a ton of research on what Witch Mountain should look like,” Fickman says. “We had the opportunity to actually visit the Cheyenne Mountain NORAD facility, which is one of our country’s most guarded locations. We also designed our facility to have the mystery and aura of Area 51, the Nevada base that is the source of so much UFO lore.”
Although most of the Witch Mountain construction was in a glass factory in Saugus, many of its tunnels were located just below the street level at a very unlikely, non-secret location: the Walt Disney Studios.
Production notes provided by Walt Disney Pictures.
Race to Witch Mountain
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, Carla Gugino, Ciaran Hinds, Alexander Ludwig
Directed by: Andy Fickman
Screenplay by: Matt Lopez, Mark Bomback, Andy Fickman
Release Date: March 13, 2009
MPAA Rating: PG sequences of action and violence, frightening and dangerous situations, and some thematic elements.
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $65,940,861 (66.6%)
Foreign: $33,063,629 (33.4%)
Total: $99,004,490 (Worldwide)