Returning to cinemas on September 10, 2026, after 28 years, is the second chapter of Amori & Incantesimi, the fantasy film adapted from Alice Hoffman’s novel “Practical Magic” (the original language title is also the film’s title). The film stars Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. The first movie arrived in 1998 and, more than a quarter of a century later, in Amori & Incantesimi 2, directed by Susanne Bier, we reunite the Owens sisters, Sally (Bullock) and Gillian (Kidman), who are witches like the rest of their family.
The plot of the film
As Sally strives to lead a normal life, with two grown daughters, Maria (played by Ema Cavolli) and Hannah (Cassie Bradley), to raise alongside her aunts Frances “Fran” Owens (the actress Stockard Channing, the famous Rizzo from Grease) and Aunt Bridget “Jet” Owens (played by Dianne Wiest, a two-time Oscar winner), Gillian moves from one relationship to another, but remains deeply bonded to the two nieces, whom she treats as if they were her own daughters. When an ancient curse threatens the Owens family’s fate once again, Sally and Gillian must face new challenges in a story that intertwines family ties, traditions and ancestral magic.
Their family has long suffered from an ancient curse: every man who falls in love with an Owens is doomed to die. Thus, the sisters’ mother died, and so did Sally’s husband, Michael, the father of the two lead daughters of the second chapter. To resolve a new chapter in their story, they must go back to the roots of it all, in England.
Where the sequel is set
The new chapter of the saga, featuring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, brings to the screen an England rich with magic and mystery. Filmed in part at the Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, the production company’s lot, about half of the shooting took place outdoors among the picturesque brick villages of Buckinghamshire, the woods surrounding the village of Thornfield (which in reality is Hambleden), passing by historic castles and period residences. The filming locations are mainly in the county of Hertfordshire, in the neighboring Buckinghamshire, but also in numerous other locations across England.
The picturesque village of Hambleden, in Buckinghamshire, which in the film stands in for Thornfield, is famed for its historical houses, cobbled streets, and the distinctly English atmosphere. Nestled between the Chiltern Hills, between the towns of Henley and Marlow and a short distance from the Tamigi, this village epitomizes England itself—a postcard-like scene of timber-framed cottages, bricks and flint perfectly integrated into the landscape where they were born.
The village’s appearance has not changed much over the centuries, and that is precisely what makes it so unique and a highly sought-after destination for film crews. Here were shot some scenes from “101 Dalmatians” (1996), “Sleepy Hollow” (1999), and many others.
Also in Buckinghamshire, the Wormsley Estate was used as the setting for Tom Lockland’s cottage (Solly McLeod). It is an exquisite 18th-century country house set amid a thousand acres of parkland near the Chiltern Hills. It was for a period the residence of Paul Getty and still belongs to the family.
For the forest scenes surrounding the village, production moved to the nearby Black Park Country Park, a 250-hectare conifer forest that has frequently served as a filming site for productions such as “Robin Hood,” “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” several James Bond films, and the Harry Potter series.
The spectacular Old Wardour Castle, in Wiltshire, was used to depict the ruins of an ancient fortress where a distant Owens ancestor was burned at the stake and where Kylie (the actress Joey King) also risks being burned. We are in a real 14th-century castle now in ruins just a few kilometers from the town of Salisbury. The hexagonal layout was popular at the time, and the structure drew inspiration from the Château de Concressault in France.
Another building used as a set is the eighteenth-century Langleybury Mansion, in Hertfordshire, located in Abbots Langley, where scenes of Harvard and the students’ dormitories were shot. In fact, at one point, the house was transformed into a secondary school, the Langleybury School, and remained so until 1996. Today it is a condominium. Among other locations used is the St. Mary and All Saints Church in Romford, transformed into a New England cemetery.
Among the locations to mention certainly is the famous pub The Royal Standard of England, which boasts more than nine centuries of history and is the oldest pub in England. Its origins date back to 1100, but the first written record of the establishment dates to 1213, when it was known as The Ship. Its current identity dates to 1663, when King Charles II gave it the title of The Royal Standard of England. This is the pub of Ian Wright’s family (the actor Lee Pace) where Sally and Gillian stay upon their arrival in England.
Locations in London
In the film, the late-Victorian Bishopsgate Institute in London appears as the library. Additionally, some scenes were shot in the neighborhood of The Hamptons, in Worcester Park, a district fully redeveloped in the south of the city, chosen to represent the New England town where the Owens family lives.
Finally, the Royal Chelsea Hospital in Chelsea was used for scenes set in a flower market and for the exterior shots of Harvard. This is a retirement and care home for former military personnel, founded as an asylum by King Charles II in 1682 and capable of housing about 300 veterans of the British Army.
