SCENE STEALER

Designing the world’s greatest toy store is hard enough, but when the movie is called “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium,” the set better feel, well, magical. “No pressure there,” quips production designer Therese DePrez (“Happiness,” “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”). “I’ll never forget walking into the empty soundstage and saying to myself, ‘Two months from now, there’ll be a world here . . . “ DePrez’s experience creating edgy-yet-whimsical sets inspired the Barnum & Bailey-on-steroids look -- visual effects were used only when necessary. “We felt that reality would be so refreshing to see on-screen,” she says.

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