The film began development in 2006, when New Line Cinema bought Kultgen's script, "Burt Dickenson: The Most Powerful Magician on Planet Earth".

The development process gained momentum when Charles McDougall was hired as director in 2011, but he eventually left the project and was replaced with Scardino.

They practice together and eventually become professional stage magicians Burt Wonderstone and Anton Marvelton, earning them success and an ongoing headlining act at the Bally's Hotel in Las Vegas.

Burt and Anton encounter up-and-coming street magician Steve Gray performing a unique yet disturbing card trick for his TV magic show, Brain Rapist.

Taking a cue from Gray's endurance-based stunts, Anton suggests that he and Burt try a similar tack—locking themselves in a Plexiglas cage called the "Hot Box" hung above Las Vegas Strip.

A drug found in Cambodia called kratom that instantly puts users into a deep sleep gives them an idea to perform a sensational trick that they were never able to perfect: the "Disappearing Audience".

Holloway then introduces Burt, Anton, and Jane's performance before they secretly sedate the audience with kratom sleeping gas to awaken at an outside location in the same seating arrangement.

The trio then performs the Disappearing Audience trick again, returning everyone to the casino theater, as the now mentally-impaired Gray watches on with the drill bit still in his skull.

The cast also includes: Jay Mohr as magician Rick the Implausible;[26] Michael Herbig as Lucius Belvedere, a magician with a German background and a thing for cats;[14][27] Zachary Gordon as a bully from Wonderstone's youth;[28] Brad Garrett as Dom, Burt's accountant;[29] Gillian Jacobs as Miranda, a fan of magic who has a one-night stand with Wonderstone;[30] and illusionist David Copperfield cameos as himself.

The film started development in 2006 when New Line Cinema bought Chad Kultgen's script, titled "Burt Dickenson: The Most Powerful Magician on Planet Earth.

"[7] By September 2010, Carell had joined the film, and the script had been completely rewritten by screenwriting team John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein.

[8] Scardino, who had not filmed in Las Vegas since helming an episode of Tracey Takes On... approximately fifteen years earlier, described shooting on location in the city as "an absolute must".

Scardino explained the decision to film the characters in these environments, saying the "two different worlds" of Vegas "helps define our talent," with the "ever-changing Strip" providing contrast with "the frozen-in-time aspect of Fremont Street.

[42] When Scardino boarded the project, the script contained several magic tricks that could not realistically occur on stage such as lasers decapitating two individuals and the heads then switching bodies, which would have required the use of computer visual effects to accomplish.

[14] The Incredible Burt Wonderstone premiered as the opening film of the SXSW festival on March 8, 2013; it was introduced by Carell, Carrey and Wilde.

The site's critical consensus reads: "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone serves up some goofy laughs, but given its outrageous conceit, it's surprisingly safe and predictable.

[57] Total Film's Matthew Leyland said that the attention to detail in terms of magician gestures, posture and dialog created a "withering showbiz satire", which is sidelined in favor of sentimentality.

[55] Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman said that the film is too cautious and unimaginative, choosing "earnest and mushy" over increasingly wild surprise,[56] and Empire's Helen O'Hara considered the script unfocused and the tone uneven, which undermined Carell's efforts to portray Wonderstone's return to glory,[53] and The New York Times' Stephen Holden said that the film's message was unoriginal and delivered without any special conviction.

[58] In contrast, Richard Roeper said that The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is "dark and wickedly funny",[57] and Variety's Joe Leydon said that it neatly balanced sentimentality with edgy comedy.

[59] Time's Mary Pols said that while the film does not always work, it did so enough that she thought it could be "the kind of semi-bad, semi-inspired comedy that could not only stand repeated viewings but perhaps improve with them.

[59] Leyland said that Carell's likability helped carry the sentimental segments,[55] but Holden considered that his performance gave Wonderstone a soulfulness that undermined the film's farcical aspirations and left the character lacking "a shark's bite".