On Monday, June 10, Warner Bros. confirmed that the nineties cult favourite witch movie Practical Magic would return with a sequel, and the Owens sisters, played by Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, are negotiating to return. While we grind up some midnight margaritas, let’s revisit the time an actual witch cursed the film set, leading the director to believe that was why it bombed at the box office.
Directed by Griffin Dunne and adapted from the 1995 novel by Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic follows the story of two sisters, Sally and Gilly Owens, who are orphaned at a young age and raised by eccentric aunts.
What makes the story magical is that the family comes from a long line of cursed witches, and any man who falls in love with an Owens woman is destined to meet an untimely end.
Practical Magis was a Box office flop
While the 1998 movie was a box office dud, earning $68.3 million worldwide against a $75 million production budget, it has generated legions of fans in the ensuing years.
In the twenty-six years since its release, Practical Magic has gained cult status, with some people recognising its relevance today as the ultimate feminist film featuring strong female leads. Let’s note that six of the film’s main characters overwhelmingly are women with all the power. Meanwhile, Men are just supporting players lucky enough to participate in the magical ride.
Despite the spellbinding storyline, it failed to resonate with critics in the 1990s and performed dismally at the box office. Speaking to Vanity Fair to celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary in 2023, Practical Magic director Griffin Dunne opened up about the box office failure and revealed an actual witch cursed the witchy movie.
The director says A witch over pay dispute cursed the film
Recalling the story, Dunne said they hired a witch consultant” to get the details of the ceremony [in the film].”
Dunne added that they got along great and “was very helpful” with her notes. Dunne said, “Sandy and Nicole kept asking about her, ‘Oh, what did the witch say? What did the witch say about this?’ before we started shooting.”
Dunne said he thought the witch consultant was paid fairly for her services and even considered bringing her to Los Angeles so she could meet the stars Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, “who were dying to meet her.”
However, things didn’t go as planned. Dunne recalled when the producer called the witch consultant to set up the trip, she was “greatly offended” that the studio didn’t offer her share of the profits from the movie. Dunne said, “She wanted three gross points [from the film’s profit]. She wanted to publish a Practical Magic cookbook and said, ‘You can’t buy me off with a hotel..”‘
Dunne said the witch was so pissed off at him that “she left a curse in some sort of tongue” on his voicemail “that was quite chilling, actually – and threatened to sue Warner Bros.”
Dunne continued. “So I took the little mini cassette [recording] and gave it to the legal department. They didn’t get halfway through it before they said, ‘F**k this,’ and wrote her a check.”
A crew member’s father reportedly died after the witch cursed Practical Magic film set
Dunne thought that would be the end, but then things started getting weird. He explained that while initially he didn’t believe in curses, “some weird things started happening.
A crew member’s father, who was quite elderly, reportedly died of a heart attack before the shooting. Dunne said the crew freaked out, saying, “Oh my God, that’s the witch. The witch killed the guy’s father,’ which is just exactly the conversation I did not want to have on my set. So we kept the news quite contained.”
Dunne revealed Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock were aware of the incident and “would talk about it endlessly.”
Let’s hope the witch’s curse doesn’t linger in the sequel.
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