WHAT FILMING AT LOUVRE ABU DHABI WAS LIKE

Including the question on everyone’s mind: Did real Louvre Paris robbery inspire the heist shot in ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’?

- By Manjusha Radhakrishnan Entertainment, Lifestyle and Sport Editor

The cast of Now You See Me: Now You Don’t - Isla Fisher, Jesse Eisenberg, and Dominic Sessa - entered the room already buzzing with mischief, and it didn’t take long before the jokes started flying - especially when the topic veered toward the Louvre Abu Dhabi heist sequence.

When I asked the question everyone secretly wanted answered — was the dazzling Louvre stunt inspired by some inside information or a real heist blueprint? — Isla Fisher leaned into the moment with a playful pause. “We can’t tell you,” she teased, her eyes dancing. “Let’s just say Lionsgate have their tentacles everywhere.”

With that, the tone was set: cheeky, conspiratorial, and utterly in tune with the franchise’s spirit.

Before we got to Abu Dhabi, the cast whose movie is out now in the UAE cinemas, reminisced about shooting in Antwerp, another key location. Sessa lit up, talking about filming inside its impressive train station and discovering the city’s diamond history. Meanwhile, Jesse Eisenberg confessed to being fascinated by something far more niche: the window panes in Antwerp’s central square. Their number, he explained, symbolised wealth — a detail only Eisenberg could deliver with earnest enthusiasm.

AMAZING ABU DHABI

But nothing lit up Isla Fisher quite like talking about her time in Abu Dhabi. “We shot in the Louvre, which was an amazing experience,” she said, almost reverently.

“They shut it down for us, and we would do nights there … everywhere you looked, you could see for miles, and you were still inside.” She even managed to squeeze in a private tour during a break, describing it as “special” in that understated way that actually means unforgettable.