Nicolas Cage has had one of the most eccentric careers in recent memory. He was an action movie star in the '90s. He won an Oscar. Over the last couple decades he's made an insane number of films, some of them good, some of them not, almost all of them weird as hell, but Cage might be on the verge of reaching peak-Nicolas Cage, as he's about to play himself and even recreate some of his most popular films.
The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent is an upcoming film that will see Nicolas Cage go full-John Malkovich, and play a fictionalized version of himself. However, the actor recently revealed that the new comedy will go the extra mile and see him recreate scenes from some of his well known movies, specifically, Con Air and Face/Off. According to Cage...
It’s a stylised version of me, and the fact I even have to refer to myself in the third person makes me extremely uncomfortable. There are many scenes in the movie where modern or contemporary – here we go – ‘Nic Cage’ and then young ‘Nic Cage’ are colliding and arguing and battling it out. It’s an acrobatic approach to acting. … I’m probably going to have to look at a couple of the movies from the past again, because I think we’re gonna have to reenact some of those sequences. It’s like walking through a Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari version of Con Air and Face/Off.
It has to be a little strange when the research required for your new roll includes you looking back at the films you already made, but that's what Nicolas Cage tells Empire he expects to do, because apparently he'll have to recreate scenes from two of his most popular action films.
Points go to Nicolas Cage for referencing a 1920's German silent film when describing the new project, but the Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari reference implies that we likely won't see exact recreations of the iconic films, but rather slightly twisted, perhaps dream-like, versions of them.
Still, it all makes this new film sound all the more strange and therefore incredibly interesting. Considering the career that Nic Cage has had, he seems like both the perfect choice for such a movie, and at the same time the actor who would be the most willing to play such a role, or roles as the case may be. Cage will be playing both a modern version of himself and a younger version of himself. Neither, strictly speaking, will be the "real" Nicolas Cage. It's a perfect recipe that feels like it is destined to create a movie that we won't forget. Whether it is "good" or not feels like it will be an entirely separate discussion.
