The man, the legend: Nicolas Cage. Between swapping faces with John Travolta for Face/Off to stealing the Declaration of Independence in Disney’s National Treasure, the 55-year-old actor has had one of the most amusing careers in Hollywood. After years of taking on smaller projects, Cage is finally starring in a studio movie again. And turns out, he’ll be playing himself.
Titled The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, the meta movie will follow Nic Cage with a frantic goal to be in Quentin Tarantino’s next movie as he is faced with a mountain of debt and a troubled relationship with his teen daughter. Oh and it gets better! Apparently the actor will talk to an egotistical ‘90s version of himself who tears him down for recent dumb movie choices, per THR.
Since the fictional Nicolas Cage becomes buried in debt, he resorts to make an appearance at the birthday party of a Mexican billionaire who is a massive fan of his. After the pair bond, the CIA pulls Cage aside to inform him the billionaire is really the kingpin of a drug cartel and has kidnapped the daughter of a Mexican presidential nominee as well. The Con Air actor is then recruited by the U.S. government to take him down.
Things really heat up when his ex-wife and daughter get wrapped up in the situation as well. Now, Cage doesn’t really have a daughter, he has two sons. It’ll be interesting how the movie handles the matter of the ex-wife character too, since he’s been formerly married to Patricia Arquette, Elvis Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie, Alice Kim, and most recently Erika Koike – for four days.
Now, to answer your undoubted question about how in Hollywood did a movie like The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent come to be. The script was written by Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten and sent out to Nicolas Cage with a letter making the case to the actor to star. Gormican assured Cage it was written with love to him, with no intention to poke fun at his career. He’s the only man for the job and thankfully the script convinced the star!
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent also impressed a slew of studios including HBO Max and Paramount, but Lionsgate won the fight for the project. Tom Gormican is on board to direct the movie, with Waves and Euphoria Kevin Turen producing. Nicolas Cage is reportedly getting massive paycheck comparable to National Treasure and Con Air. For context, he amassed $20 million per project in his glory days.
What sounds like a hilarious love letter to the lore of Nic Cage will also have references to his famed movies such as Leaving Las Vegas, Face/Off and Gone In 60 Seconds. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend as the project continues to move forward!
