The Illusionist to be magically transformed into completely different TV show

By Sean O'Neal | October 15, 2014 | 8:04pm

Aux Features TV

The Illusionist, the 2006 film best remembered as not being The Prestige, will get a second act on television, the small, magic box so many movies have been stuffed into lately, only to emerge completely different. Deadline reports that The CW is developing a TV adaptation of the 1889-set drama, in which Edward Norton played an Austrian magician who uses his skills to snare the love of a woman far above his standing, like a turn-of-the-century David Blaine.

However, with a new script by True Blood’s Mark Hudis, The CW’s The Illusionist will transport the action to early 20th-century New York and—presto change-o—it will now concern a famed magician who’s recently spent a decade in prison and who uses his skills to pull off elaborate heists, all while rising through a criminal organization to take down the mob boss who framed him and married his wife. It’s just like the old “rabbit-in-a-hat trick,” where a rabbit is placed in a hat, then killed, then a dove is pulled out and everyone insists it’s still a rabbit. Voila.