Magic

 On this date in 1978, "Magic" was released.

Joseph E. Levine bought the film rights to William Goldman's novel for $1 million. This included Goldman's fee to write the screenplay.

Original director Norman Jewison wanted an unknown ventriloquist to portray the role of Corky. Jewison met with the then unknown ventriloquist Jay Johnson after Johnson's manager Richard O. Linke reached out to the director. After Jewison saw Johnson performing at The Horn in Hollywood, he was sold on Jay's abilities as a ventriloquist and actor. Jewison approached the studio with his first choice for the lead role, but they wanted a big name actor, specifically Jack Nicholson. Jay was then offered the role of the cab driver and as a ventriloquism coach for Nicholson. However, Nicholson took a leave from acting for three months and Jewison had to move on to his next directing project. It is not true that Nicholson dropped out because he didn't want to wear a toupee, as is erroneously stated in a documentary about the film.

Steven Spielberg expressed interest in directing the film and considered casting Robert De Niro for Corky. Richard Attenborough, who had just made "A Bridge Too Far" (1977) with Goldman and Levine, then agreed to direct.

Gene Wilder was Attenborough's original choice for Corky, and Goldman wanted him as well, but Levine refused, on the grounds he wanted no comedians in the movie to distract from the serious nature of the story. Many years after this movie's release, Wilder was asked at a book signing in New York City what role he wished he had gotten to play, and he said Corky in this movie, believing that the role and the movie would have worked much better with a comedian in the role.

To prepare for his performance in this movie, Anthony Hopkins, who ultimately played the role, learned magic tricks and studied the art of ventriloquism. Hopkins learned how to project his voice and manipulate a ventriloquist's dummy. Upon seeing the dummy Fats for the first time, Hopkins was allowed to take the doll home to work with it. However, he wound up being so unnerved by it that he called the consulting ventriloquist in the middle of the night, threatening to throw Fats into the canyon if someone didn't come and get the doll immediately. Attenborough ended up going to Hopkins' house to calm him down.