In the midst of all the superhero films raking in big bucks last year, it was Louis Leterrier's magician caper Now You See Me that pulled quite a trick by earning more than $350M on a modest budget by summer standards. And when that happened, Lionsgate was quick to start work on a sequel with Leterrier seemingly confirmed to return. But things have changed over the past year and now Leterrier is out and Jon M. Chu may be replacing him.
Chu, who just completed work on a Jem and the Holograms movie and is still in the mix to direct G.I. Joe 3, is the frontrunner to take over Now You See Me 2. The first film starred Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, and Dave Franco as a quartet of illusionists/bank robbers known as The Four Horsemen who use their stage show to steal from the rich and provide to the poor. Only Franco has yet to be confirmed to reprise his role, while Mark Ruffalo, who played a cop hot on the Horsemen's trail, is expected to return.
Leterrier had already begun plotting out the sequel so for him to suddenly drop out is a little odd. It's possible he ran into a conflict with Sacha Baron Cohen's spy comedy, Grimsby, which Leterrier is on board to direct.
