Most of you probably know Nicolas Cage's history with Superman by now but his love of comic book superheroes goes well beyond that. He recently got to talking about the success of superhero films and had some very interesting things to say about Captain America. He also talks about his almost-casting in Starz's American Gods.
In an interview with the LA Times about the three, yes THREE, films he has debuting this month (Army of One, Dog Eat Dog, USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage) they got him chatting about superhero movies. More specifically, is he surprised that comi book films are dominating the film industry right now?
“I”m not surprised at all,” he told them. “In fact, as mystical and prescient as this sounds, when I was about 12 years old, when I was really reading comic books actively, I actually had a moment where I thought to myself that the comic book would one day overtake the film industry. I knew that when the technology got to the point that the stories could be seen in all their spectacular glory, it would captivate the world – and it did.”
We're certainly seeing that technology hard at work this weekend with the release of Marvel's Doctor Strange but Cage is still surprised with the productions we're getting.
“It”s the kind of thing where now I keep being amazed at how many new stories make it to the screen,” he said. “I didn”t think they were going to be able to make Captain America work. When it did work and it was a success, it was like, 'Well, I guess they”re capable of achieving anything at this point.'”
I'd say that's true considering what we're seeing not just on the big screen but the small screen as well in the superhero genre.
Speaking of TV, Bryan Fuller's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's American Gods novel for Starz is looking impressive so far and has a pretty phenomenal cast. The 100's Ricky Whittle is playing the lead character Shadow Moon, Orlando Jones is Mr. Nancy, Gillian Anderson is Media, Crispin Glover is Mr. World, Cloris Leachman is Zorya Vechernyaya. But perhaps the most magnificent casting was that of Deadwood's Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday. Only, according to Cage, they had offered him that role.
The LA Times asked him if he'd consider doing television and he said, “I've been invited many times to go on a show, one of which was on Neil Gaiman's American Gods to play Mr. Wednesday, which was a great part, beautifully written. And I said no.”
While we've yet to see any footage from American Gods, I'm sure that would have made for a much different dynamic indeed.