Bullock and Kidman return to Practical Magic: the sequel will be released after 28 years

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return to being witch sisters Sally and Gillian Owens — Practical Magic 2 hits theaters worldwide on September 9, and the filmmakers promise that the flavor of the cult film of 1998 has not gone away.

A curse for a quarter of a century ahead

The sequel takes place about 25 years after the events of the original, xrust clarifies. The women of the Owens family unite once again to lift a family curse, because of which all men who fall in love with a witch from this family are doomed to an early death. The plot is based not on Alice Hoffman’s first novel, but on her 2021 book, “The Book of Magic,” the final part of the series, where not only the sisters, but also their grown-up daughters are at the center of the story.

Casting here works like a time machine. Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest once again tried on the roles of eccentric aunts Frances and Jet — the same ones who taught their nieces to prepare love potions and talk to the dead. The new generation of Owens goes to Joey King and Maisie Williams: they play Kylie and Antonia, Sally's daughters, who, apparently, are destined to inherit the family craft. The cast was completed by Lee Pace, Xolo Maridueña and Solly McLeod, and the director’s chair was taken by Danish Susanne Bier, director of “Bird Box” and winner of European film awards. The music, by the way, was again composed by Alan Silvestri, the author of the soundtrack of the original film.

“The people’s request”, which was heard after 28 years

class=»notranslate»>__GTAG5__According to the actresses, returning to their favorite characters was surprisingly easy. At the European premiere in London, Channing and Wiest admitted that the reunion went smoothly, largely thanks to the fans: it was a long-term flurry of requests on social networks that convinced the studio to give the sequel the green light.

Kidman noted that almost three decades ago, neither she nor Bullock would have believed that they would land leading roles in a major studio film again — and added that it was important for them to pass the torch to younger actresses while remaining at the center of the story. For Bullock, filming was also a return to work after a four-year break. And Wiest directly linked the success of the project to the fact that women know how to unite and support each other — as they say, in a sisterly way.

From failure to cult: how the first “Magic” found its audience

Here it’s worth remembering how it all began. The original Practical Magic was released in October 1998 with a budget of $75 million (at current exchange rates — about 6 billion rubles), and grossed less than $47 million in the United States. Critics crushed the original: the rating on Rotten Tomatoes froze at around 20%. Formally, it was a commercial failure.

But the film had a second life. In the 2010s, the film became a cult classic among millennials and zoomers thanks to its “whimsigoth” aesthetic—a mix of gothic, vintage mysticism, and cozy home magic inspired by the Owens sisters' coastal home. The term was invented by designers years after the premiere, but it was “Practical Magic” that is considered one of the films that made this style popular. What critics once considered a weakness—excessive sentimentality and “witchy comfort”—has now become the main magnet for a new audience.

It is also significant that Warner Bros. They have already tried to develop the franchise differently: in 2019, the prequel series “Rules of Magic” was announced for HBO, but the project was closed at the development stage. Bringing the original actresses back to the big screen turned out to be a safer bet for the studio than a series with new faces.

When and where to watch

Worldwide distribution starts on September 9 — in particular, on this day the film is released in France. In Ukraine, the premiere is scheduled for September 10, and in North America, the dates differ in different sources: they call either September 11 or September 18 — the studio has not yet brought them together. The announcement of the May date was accompanied by a video of Bullock and Kidman chanting a comic “spell” with the release date—a typical marketing ploy that references the atmosphere of the first film.

Like the original, which is currently available on HBO Max, the sequel will almost certainly end up on the same platform after its release, as is the case with most major Warner Bros. releases. So those who don't make it to the cinema in time probably won't have to wait long.

Sources:
reuters.com
variety.com
boxofficemojo.com

Xrust Bullock and Kidman return to “Practical Magic”: the sequel will be released after 28 years