FANTASIA KICKS OFF WITH THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE – WITH JAY BARUCHEL IN PERSON – AND CLOSES WITH THE CANADIAN SUNDANCE SMASH TUCKER & DALE VS EVIL!

What better to open the 14th edition of Fantasia than with THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE, a film inspired by the legendary segment in Disney’s FANTASIA – with rising star and genre champion Jay Baruchel in person for a Q+A, no less! Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turteltaub (the team behind the NATIONAL TREAUSE franchise) join forces again for a modern-day live-action (emphasis on action!) film that tips its hat to the most beloved sequence in Disney’s animated classic FANTASIA, and stars Nicolas Cage, Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer, Monica Bellucci and Toby Kebbell.

We’re excited to see Turtletaub’s take on this historical moment in animated film history, and extremely thrilled to be opening the festival with such a powerhouse film, tailor-made for rabid genre audiences. Our screening will be THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE’s Canadian premiere, 6 days before it opens wide across North America.

Three weeks later, Fantasia will rip to a close with the Canadian instant-classic TUCKER & DALE VS EVIL, an inspired horror film satire that was a standout at Sundance, won an audience award at SXSW and was hailed by USA Today as “a laugh-yourself-stupid-movie”. Directed by Eli Craig and starring Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk and Katrina Bowden, the film is a witty horror send-up detailing the plight of loveable hicks who are mistaken for TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE-style psychos by a pack of over sheltered college kids. Absolute chaos ensues.

Bowling over audiences wherever it screens, this is perhaps the strongest horror-comedy since SHAUN OF THE DEAD – and it happens to be a Canadian co-production. Given that, what better place for it to have its Canadian premiere than the Fantasia Film Festival, where it will be screened many months before its fall theatrical release?

ABOUT THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE

Walt Disney Studios, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turteltaub, the team behind the NATIONAL TREASURE franchise, present THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE — an innovative and epic comedy adventure about a sorcerer and his hapless apprentice who are swept into the centre of an ancient conflict between good and evil.

Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) is a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina). Balthazar can’t do it alone, so he recruits Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel), a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential, as his reluctant protégé. The sorcerer gives his unwilling accomplice a crash course in the art and science of magic, and together, these unlikely partners pit their powers against those of the fiercest—and most ruthless—villains of all time. It’ll take all the courage Dave can muster to survive his training, save the city and get the girl as he becomes “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” The screenplay is by Matt Lopez and Doug Miro & Carlo Bernard from a screen story by Larry Konner & Mark Rosenthal and Matt Lopez. Disney.com/Sorcerer; like us on Facebook: facebook.com/SorcerersApprentice; follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/DisneyPictures.

ABOUT TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL
“The hillbillies from the store captured Alison!”

Tucker and Dale, two hillbillies heading to their “fixer-upper” cabin for some relaxin’, discover they ain’t alone in them woods. They encounter an SUV full of vacationing college kids, and Dale unintentionally creeps them out. But later, as he and Tucker are fishing, Dale rescues one of them—the pretty blond Alison—after she falls into the lake. Assuming she’s been captured, the indomitably preppy college kids rally to find her.

A comically macabre battle between Izods and overalls, Eli Craig’s ingenious send-up of the horror genre recounts a simple misunderstanding gone grotesquely wrong. Our hillbilly psycho killers are actually sweet as pie; it’s the judgmental college kids who have “issues.”

Craig lovingly embraces clichés, dispensing humor and gore in equal parts as we watch the educated class blunder to its demise. “Nature, beer, and a rising body count—what better way to spend Memorial Day?” – Sundance Film Festival

For more information, please contact:
press@fantasiafestival.com

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