CAINE INFAMY PRESTO! HE'S EVERYWHERE.

Byline: -- Glenn Whipp

`The Prestige'' finds Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman playing rival magicians keen on learning the other's secrets and destroying them.

But when it comes to revealing more about the plot, director Christopher Nolan (``Memento,'' ``Batman Begins'') might be taking the magician's code of secrecy a bit far.

``I have no idea what's going to happen, and I'm in the movie,'' says Michael Caine, who plays the trickster mentor to Jackman's showman.

``What I can tell you is that the first voice and the last voice you'll hear in the film is mine. In between ... well, I'm still waiting to see it myself.''

Caine will also be seen this December in Alfonso Cuaron's much-anticipated ``Children of Men,'' which premiered to much acclaim earlier this month at the Venice Film Festival. Caine again plays a mentor figure 7/8 ``I'm everyone's father these days,'' he says wryly 7/8 but here there's a significant difference: The character isn't so wise.

``He's an aging hippie who's stuck in the '60s, smoking pot and the whole thing,'' Caine says. ``With the pot, you can throw the whole wisdom thing out the window. I've never tried it, but I know from observation that it doesn't turn you into a rocket scientist overnight.''

Caine says the reunion between himself and fellow ``Batman Begins'' brethren Bale and Nolan worked well for ``The Prestige.'' The trio will convene again sometime next year to shoot the next ``Batman'' movie, titled ``The Dark Knight.''

``I'd work with Christopher on anything,'' Caine says, ``even if he finds something for me that's not a father figure.''

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``THE PRESTIGE''

OCT. 2O

Michael Caine, left, Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman star in ``The Prestige,'' set in the world of magic.