"The action is amped up," The Rock told us during our visit to the set. "Plus, for me, I said for a long time that I didn't want to go back into the action genre unless it was intense action that really played well, like what Greengrass did with the Bourne films and what Campbell did with the latest Bond movie. Not that this film is similar in tone to those films, because it's not, but the action is really driven. It's intense. And it's funny too!"
Race to Witch Mountain stars AnnaSophia Robb (Bridge to Terabithia, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and Alexander Ludwig (The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising) as twin siblings with paranormal abilities and a mysterious past. The Rock plays a Las Vegas cabbie who joins a disgraced astrophysicist, portrayed by Spy Kids and Sin City actress Carla Gugino, to save the twins from a nefarious organization that wants to exploit their powers. Ciaran Hinds (Veronica Guerin, Munich) is the villain.
During our visit to the shoot at the Pomona Convention Center in Pomona, California, IGN saw the expansive venue transformed for a sequence that takes place at a UFO enthusiast expo. The place is packed with booths and there are a bunch of extras posing as convention-goers, some dressed in street clothes and others in outlandish alien costumes. We watched the filming of a scene with The Rock's character as he frantically searches the convention floor for the twins who've wandered off.
"These two teenage kids get into my cab, and they happen to be from another planet," Johnson explains, setting up the film's action. "The fate of that planet is in their hands, and the fate of our planet is in mine. At first my character doesn't believe them, but through a series of events he starts to realize that these kids are telling the truth. And they endear themselves to him. He cares about them, and he cares about the fate of the world."
"It's The Rock kicking ass," director Fickman says. "And then we have Ciaran Hinds -- the only guy we ever talked about for the role of the bad guy."
But in this version there's another force that the film's heroes will have to reckon with, a vicious alien monster called the Siphon.
"The kids ask me to take them to a certain location, but this monster, the Siphon, ends up meeting them there," The Rock tells us. "He sets out to find and kill them, and destroy the evidence that they have."
Fickman describes the Siphon as a "badass monster," realized largely without the use of CG-animation. "Our design team is ADI -- Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis -- the guys responsible for Alien and Predator," he says. "They created something really scary -- Tom will be in the suit. It wasn't in the original, but in this one something chases them from the planet."
It should be clear by now that this isn't your daddy's Witch Mountain, a point The Rock and Fickman both drove home.
"I wanted to make sure that this was just badass," says Johnson. "Something that the audience wouldn't expect from Disney. These guys want to push the envelope, too. They understand the value of handing out a good old fashioned ass-kicking."
Fickman explains the differences from the original like this: "If 30 years ago those kids had crashed on this planet and done all of that... What would happen 30 years later? How has our society changed? Throughout our movie we have tons of tie-ins to the original film, but we're a darker movie. Disney's been really supportive of us trying to amp it up."
If Fickman has his way, the film will be accessible, but bold. "We want this to be a movie that anybody can go and see and have a great time," he says. "But I wanted to feel edgy, too. It's dark and creepy. I went back and read the original Alexander Key book, Escape to Witch Mountain, and it's a very heavy sci-fi novel. It's all about questioning authority, hiding in plain sight, and you don't know who to trust. I loved it. I respect what they did in '75 at Disney -- they had a coat rack attacking people -- here we just wanted to make it more intense."
When asked for a film that he'd compare Witch Mountain's tone to, he surprised us with the 1982 Eddie Murhy flick 48 Hrs. "The humor in 48 Hrs. came from a very natural place, but the movie itself was a very dark in tone adventure. And that's sort of where we land. It's also very inspired by '70s action movies. The camera angles, the zooms -- the way the action was shot."
The Rock is, of course, the main action player in the flick, but the film's young stars, AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig, are also getting a piece of the action. "The kids have been fantastic," The Rock enthuses. "I'm always very impressed with child actors. You have to have an incredible amount of capacity to do what we do as children. They always have a great, fresh perspective. We're protective of them, too. On a movie like this... it's a road movie, and they're on the run. Within three minutes you're on the run and it's no stopping. They've been carrying out the action great, and the comedy great. They've got good parents, too. I always say, if you've got a good mom, you've got a shot."
Johnson may be an experienced action star, but he's only just done his first ever car chase scene for Witch Mountain. "A lot of the action I've done has involved hand-to-hand combat and a lot of weaponry, but it was awesome to just get in a car," he says. "We were like, bang, bang, bang... having these incredible car chases. We got airborne too. It was great!"
For the convention scene, Fickman went for hyper-realism. "I was born in Roswell, New Mexico," he explains. "I grew up going to UFO conventions, and have a certain love and respect for them. When we first envisioned this scene we thought the convention would be just a few tables with some pamphlets, but that wasn't cool. So, we pulled out all the stops. I wanted it to feel real."
Fickman, an apparent UFO enthusiast himself, even called in real-life experts in the field.
"We've got Whitley Strieber, author of Communion -- Carla Gugino actually improved a scene with him. Then we've got UFO Hunters host Bill Birnes, one of my heroes. Dr. Roger Leir, an alien implant guy. These guys are usually really serious, so it's great to see them in here having fun."
So, is there really life out there? The Rock says he's a believer, but his character is far from it at the start of the film. In fact, when he first meets Carla Gugino's character, a scientist whose career is sidetracked by her pursuit of extraterrestrial life, he thinks she's nuts. "My character thinks that Carla's character is just like all the other alien crazies out there," he says. "I don't believe in UFOs, I think she's crazy, and of course within 25 minutes of the story I learn otherwise. For years her character has been doing her research and her science, and unequivocally believing that there's life out there. And then she meets these two children that validate her life's work."
And what about a love connection between the two? "There's not really a love interest there, but I always like kind of hinting at it and flirting with her. I think that's more fun."
In another departure from the original, the film's titular set piece is also a huge step up. "In the original, Witch Mountain was like a hill with a tree," Fickman says. "They hid the UFO behind the tree. Our Witch Mountain is like Area 51. We got to have an entire day tour of NORAD, which hadn't really been done since WarGames, inside Cheyenne Mountain, and we based our design on that."
So, can we expect a Witch Mountain franchise? "I'd love to come back for a sequel," says The Rock. "It all depends on how well it does, and how the audience responds. I'd be happy to come back."
We'll have more behind-the-scenes Race to Witch Mountain action for you here on IGN in the coming days.
