Alfred Molina is readying his potions for “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.”
The actor has signed on to play the evil magician Horvath in the Disney tentpole starring Nicolas Cage and Jay Baruchel. Jon Turteltaub is directing the film, and Jerry Bruckheimer is producing.
The story centers on an average college student (Baruchel) who is reluctantly recruited to work for a sorcerer named Balthazar Blake (Cage). The man gives him a crash course in the art and science of magic to prepare him for a battle against the forces of darkness in modern Manhattan.
Teresa Palmer also is in the cast, playing Baruchel’s love interest.
Executive producing are Cage and his Saturn Films partner Norm Golightly as well as Todd Garner, Barry Waldman and Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ Mike Stenson and Chad Oman.
The movie begins shooting this month in New York.
Molina’s deal puts him back into Disney and Bruckheimer’s fold; the actor recently wrapped a turn as Sheik Amar in “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,” which the studio will release May 28, 2010.
Molina, repped by Endeavor and Hyler Management, also completed shooting “The Tempest,” Julie Taymor’s cross-gender take on the Shakespearean play.
