Disney Channel (2009) / Director: Lev L. Spiro
The Wizards of Waverly Place, The Movie was adapted from the Disney Channel’s wildly popular Wizards of Waverly Place series. The movie centers on the Russo family vacation to an enchanted island that leads them into a magical quest. This is the Russo family sandwich shop interior/exterior stage set- street scene complete with the subway-dining car.
Interior of Russo family sandwich shop interior of interior/exterior stage set. (This is a recreation of a standing sitcom set originally designed by Michael Hynes in LA. We recreated it as a single-camera set for the movie in Puerto Rico).
The reverse of the Russo family sandwich shop interior/exterior stage set, note the subway-dining car element. This is a detachable, fully gimbaled unit used in a fantasy runaway train sequence.
Here is the detached subway-dining car being shot in its runaway train sequence.
This is the "Wizard Battle Field". We created these concentric rings of "stone" obelisks and ribbon banners surrounding a three-legged "stone" table to create some visual landmarks in an otherwise vast empty space in the final wizard battle sequence.
This "wizard-carved" cave protected "the Stone of Dreams", the most important object in the wizarding universe. It sits on its pedestal protected by a "bottomless pit" and a latticework of crumbling beams and columns. In this sequence, our young hero Justin Russo (David Henrie) must skirt along the edges of the pit to retrieve the Stone of Dreams. So I designed these columns and torchiers to give him some handholds along the way.
The reverse of the cave. The entry end and paint finish were made to match an amazing natural cave system in Puerto Rico we used to lead our hero's deep into this magically hewn hiding place.
A ruined fortress gate hiding the beginning of the Wizard's treacherous path built just at the high tide line.
These are our magical "Floating" stones, built on our efx crew's brilliant universal hydraulic gimbals, magically carried our hero's (David Henrie & Selena Gomez) across the yawning chasm. We actually used this golf course fairway as a natural green screen.
Tropical resort hotel room for the Russo kids (Selena Gomez, David Henrie & Jake T. Austin).
Tropical resort hotel room for Mr. and Mrs. Russo (David DeLuise & Maria Canals-Barrera).
The Russo family (David Henrie, David DeLouise, Selena Gomez, and Maria Canals-Barrera) in the Wizard Cave.
Brave young Justin Russo (David Henrie) skirts the bottomless pit in the Wizard Cave to retrieve the magical Stone of Dreams.
Alex Russo (Selena Gomez) tries to retrieve the dropped Stone of Dreams in the Wizard Cave.
