Good news on the music front. Legendary electronic producer Roland Clark has agreed to write original music for the film. His song “Song for Shelter” became the musical backbone of the film from the early days of editing, as it seemed to capture the soul of the film more than any other song we played around with. Poetic, gritty, and soulful, if you have not heard this track before, it is a classic. Fat Boy Slim did a good remix, which is what currently plays in the trailer on our site. Roland is a super cool guy, and really excited to see what he comes up with.

Ted Wallach has been directing films for 12 years and has been a creative director for We Create Space, a design company, for five years. He has an MFA in directing from Sarah Lawrence College, and graduated from film school in Denmark. His last film LAYOVER, about a couple trapped in an infinite airport, was created with an extensive VFX team and played at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009. Ted directed a music video in Dubai which garnered 9.5 million views on YouTube, and a nomination at the MTV awards. Over the last four years he has been directing his first feature film, a documentary about inner city kids who escape the streets by becoming magicians. Ted has co-directed two Bollywood films, and cut his teeth under Martin Scorsese on The Aviator.

Jason Sosnoff is a producer of fiction and non-fiction films. He spent his formative years under the tutelage of Robert De Niro as Mr. De Niro’s executive research advisor on the Cold War epic, The Good Shepherd.

In 2007, he began working for Academy-Award winning director Barry Levinson (Rain Main, Wag the Dog) on What Just Happened? In 2008, he was promoted to Director of Development of Mr. Levinson’s Baltimore Pictures, and has now produced 3 films with Levinson, including the highly anticipated found footage horror movie, The Bay, which Lionsgate is releasing in 2011.

Levinson’s and Sosnoff’s new high-profile project is Gotti: In the Shadows of my Father, which will begin filming in 2012, starring John Travolta.

Magic Men will be Sosnoff’s third documentary film, which he and director Ted Wallach began 5 years ago.

William Haugse, ACE, is an Oscar- (Hoop Dreams) and Emmy-nominated editor of scores of films including a dozen documentary features. Recent work includes “No Impact Man” (Oscilloscope) and “Locked Out,” still on the festival circuit. He has worked with directors John Cassavetes, Orson Welles and Lamont Johnson among many others. Projects in the works include the story of a Marine whose father, also a Marine, died as a result of Agent Orange exposure in the Viet Nam War, and Operation Popcorn, story of a the Hmong people in Northern California. Haugse also taught editing and general filmmaking at the School of Cinema, USC, and has directed thirty or so films of his own, including “Breakfast in Bed” with John Ritter.

Ross began documentary filmmaking as an editor/cinematographer for the Harvard-Smithsonian. Weinberg then left his commercial editing job in Hollywood to produce the film London (Staring Jessica Biel, Chris Evans and Jason Statham) and subsequently developed several high-concept TV shows with E! and FX. Currently, he is producing a high profile documentary about global energy security.

Adam M. Jandrup is a Director of Photography based in New York and Copenhagen, but his work has taken him all over the world.

Since 2004 Adam has shot numerous televesion series and documentaries for the national Danish broadcasting network (Danmarks Radio) as well as numerous short films, music videos, art films and commercials for clients such as GE Capital, Nokia, the Discovery Channel and Red Cross.

In 2009, Jandrup was the cinematographer for Oscar-winner Barry Levinson’s documentary Poliwood (Showtime).

Mark Baechle is going to be our composer. Mark’s name was sent to me by Marcelo Zarvos, who is a friend from a few other films we have done together (Good Shepherd, You Don’t Know Jack.) Mark has worked with Marcelo a bunch and recently did some composing on Spider Man the musical with U2. Like everyone who has worked on Magic Men, he is a good dude and crazy talented. We might post some of his initial pieces in their rough state to see what people think.

After God knows how long (well, two years), on October 2nd, 2011  we officially picture locked. Ross Weinberg started editing back on Oct. 8th, 2009 in LA, going through the 350 hours of footage we shot. Ted had worked with Ross on a short film and both of us were impressed by his work and hired him after one phone call together. If I remember correctly, Ross looked at some of our footage and thought we had the next great competition doc. Quickly we realized there was much much more to our film.

Devonte Rosero was born in Bushwick, Brooklyn. At an early age he was doing magic in his living room, with dreams of being seen in front of millions of people. By the time he was 16, he already won Showtime at the Apollo and showed promise of being one of the great magicians of his generation. As high school started, he faced new realities. Surrounded by gangs, his only choice was to fall into a world of violence and crime. He soon found himself in a hospital bed after a near fatal attack. Magic Men begins with Devonte being released from the hospital and trying to find himself in the world of magic again.

Miles Thorn was born in 1987, in Astoria, NY, the son of stagehand at Radio City Music Hall. While in highschool he was introduced to Rogue’s Magic Shop and began hanging at the shop, learning tricks, and eventually working there. When he was 16, he began experimenting with various drugs. After living this life for over a year, a night came where something happened in his brain. He fell into a deep state of depression and anxiety and had to be institutionalized for a brief period. Everyday became a struggle to try and feel normal again. He battled the demons in his mind for over a year, and slowly began to get back into doing magic. Our story begins with Miles resurfacing at the magic shop.