The Great Buck Howard is the comedic story of a man who entertained people with his ability to read minds and hypnotize not just one person but an entire room full of people. Played by John Malkovich, Buck Howard had a marquee act in Vegas and 61 appearances on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. But now Buck is a has-been and performs in community centers and hasn’t had a large crowd to perform in front of for years.

However, he remains optimistic and recruits a new manager and personal assistant, Troy Gable (played by Colin Hanks), who is a law-school dropout looking for a more fulfilling purpose in life. And with the help of his publicist (Emily Blunt), and his trademark catch phrase, “I love this town!” he lands back in the spotlight as he always dreamed.

Writer-Director Sean McGinly drew from some personal experience when making this film. “I went to law school like Troy and quite soon after arriving I cashed out my student loan and moved to LA, not knowing anyone or anything," he explains. “I was completely clueless. I hadn’t written anything.  I wasn’t some child prodigy. It was a ridiculous thing to do. So I had a succession of weird Hollywood-type jobs, where I met different kinds of strange characters, some who were on the fringes of the entertainment business.”

He wants people to take from the movie the idea that it is never too late to start over.

“Buck and Troy meet each other at a crucial time. While Buck is not necessarily Troy’s idea of creative success, at least Buck has passion and talent. Troy learns that it’s possible to live life loving what you do,” says McGinly. “As for Buck, he strives to hit the big time again, landing that gig in Vegas and being a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. What Buck doesn’t realize is that he’s already living his dream.”

After his agent recommended the script to him, Colin Hanks loved it and couldn’t put it down when he started reading it. After meeting with Hanks, McGinly realized that he could bring out the innocence and confusion that was essential to Troy’s character.

“I needed an actor that could handle both the humor and drama," McGinly says. “After seeing Orange County, I knew Colin was the right choice for this part. It was probably a couple of years between his agreeing to star in the movie and the movie getting made. So we had a lot of time to talk about the character. Colin was involved in all the auditions, so by the time we started shooting, he was the character.”

Then there was the casting of the lead. Who would play Buck Howard?

“When John (Malkovich) walked into the make-up test for the first time dressed as Buck Howard, honestly, tears almost came to my eyes. He just looked so much like I had imagined Buck. We started taking some Buck Howard stills, and John did all these poses and weird smiles.  And I realized that he really got it. After that moment, I knew he was going to be fantastic as Buck Howard,” says McGinly.

“The script was sent to me, and I read it fairly quickly,” Malkovich remembers. I liked it very much. “I thought it was very funny and very observant, and it looked as if Buck Howard would be an enormous pleasure to play, which he was.  So, it didn’t really take much to convince me.”

The movie may be sparked from well-known mentalist The Amazing Kreskin, who has been bewildering people with his so called ability to read minds for over six decades. He was born in Montclair, New Jersey and started as a young child who could reportedly find hidden objects using his mind. His abilities expanded and by a teenager he was recognized as The World’s Youngest Hypnotist.

This is how he came up with his signature piece in all of his performances. He requests that his check be hidden somewhere in the audience, and if he can’t find it, he will do the gig for free.

Today he has received international recognition for helping with world affairs and has become a consultant to law enforcement. Regarding the US Presidential Election in 2008, he logged the results with a written statement made 11 months earlier, on December 6, 2007. In 2008 on Fox Business News, he predicted the results of the Super Bowl three days before the game.
 
Kreskin continues to offer “$50,000 to anybody that can prove that he employs paid secret assistants or confederates in any phase of his program.” He has had this offer in place for many years.