Bogus is a 1996 Warner Bros. film directed by Norman Jewison and starring Whoopi Goldberg. It was written by Alvin Sargent. It featured magic tricks with magician Whit Haydn as consultant. Though an acceptable family film, it did poorly at the box office and Goldberg was nominated for a Razzie Award for her performance. It was filmed in Canada.
A fantasy, it tells the story of a boy named Albert Franklin, the son of a Las Vegas magician's assistant who dies in a car crash. The boy is sent to New Jersey to live with his mother's foster sister, Harriet, who has trouble coping with sudden parenthood. Albert invents an imaginary friend named Bogus, a French magician, who helps the boy cope with his transition. Gradually Harriet, who can also see Bogus, also comes to terms with her new situation as well.
Seven year-old Albert is the son of a Las Vegas circus performer. When she is killed in a car wreck, Albert is sent to live with his mother's foster sister, Harriet Franklin, a no-nonsense businesswoman struggling in New Jersey. Albert hates it with the dour Harriet, but takes refuge in the company of Bogus, a flamboyant, gentle, loving, and altogether imaginary Frenchman. With Bogus's help, Albert can perhaps come to terms with his mother's death, and Harriet with her own loss of childhood innocence. Written by Jim Beaver
