Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Meet Houdini's technical advisor: David Merlini

Hungarian born escape artist David Merlini is serving as technical advisor on the Houdini miniseries currently shooting in Budapest. David joins a small and prestigious fraternity of magicians that includes Dunninger (advisor on Houdini, 1953), Harry Blackstone Jr. (The Great Houdinis), and Jim Bentley (Houdini, 1998).

Says David, "It is certainly a privilege and a challenge to be part of such an exceptional cast, preparing the most amazing motion picture ever about The Great Houdini. His magic has been following my whole life and it is now enlightening each day of shoot."

David has performed some truly spectacular escapes in his career, such as freeing himself from the inside of a SCUD missile in flight, being embedded in a block of concrete then thrown in a river, and being frozen in a block of ice while in a straitjacket for 33 hours. In 2007 he was awarded Best Escape Artist at the World Magic Awards in Los Angeles. He is also the holder of the World Record for holding his breath while underwater at 21 minutes, 29 seconds, set in 2009.

You can learn more about David's work at his website: www.merlini.com.

Merlini in action.

Houdini stars Adrien Brody as Houdini and Kristen Connolly as Bess. It's being directed by Uli Edel from a script by Nicholas Meyer. Houdini will air on History in 2014.

1 comment:

  1. This is an impressive resume!
    David and I have written back and forth and a visit is upcoming. I can honestly say that this will be the highlight of my trip (and I have a pretty good vacation planned)

    I realize that all of us here will pick this movie apart, scene by scene and know that the dates, names and places may not reflect the actual story.

    I ask: How can any filmmaker tell a factual story of HH in 2 nights?

    I enjoyed the movie and I hope some young viewer gets hooked on HH as we all have.

    ReplyDelete

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