Nic Cage Week may already be over, but Nic Cage himself never ends, and if he does, he’ll decide where the end is. And so Cage is at the Toronto International Film Festival, where he fielded a question about Superman Lives, the Tim Burton-directed movie that would have starred Nic Cage as the Man of Steel. Warner spent around $50 million on development back in the ’90s before canceling the project, perhaps because, as Nic Cage theorized four years ago, “Maybe Warner Brothers got scared because they had two artists that weren’t afraid to take chances.” Nic Cage is definitely not afraid to take chances or ride donkeys.
Years ago we even got to see pictures and video of Nic Cage dressed as Superman, with his long, flowing hair in all his Con Air days glory. We likened the suit to an energy drink can or a figure skater, and we deemed it so ’90s it should have been hypercolor. And perhaps it’s for the best that we’re left to imagine just how cheesy and amazing the project would have been, or at least that’s the argument Nic Cage just made in an interview at TIFF with Entertainment Weekly, PEOPLE, and InStyle.
“I would offer that the movie that Tim and I would have made, in your imagination, is more powerful than any of the Superman movies. I didn’t even have to make the movie and we all know what that movie would have been in your imagination. That is the Superman. That is the movie. Even though you never saw it — it is the Superman.”
Daaaaamn that’s deep. Or as Blastr puts it, “Superman Lives. […] In our hearts.”
This new Nic Cage interview echoes what he said back in 2015 about the power of our imaginations: “I think people can actually see the movie in their minds now and imagine it and in many ways that might resonate more deeply than the finished project.”
Cage is currently at TIFF promoting Mom and Dad, directed by Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance‘s Brian Taylor. Entertainment Weekly also spoke to Taylor, who said, “Directing Nic is like directing the weather — he’s like Hurricane Jose. You can’t change it, you can only wear the right clothing and hope you don’t get destroyed by it.”
We’re imagining Cage overheard this, assumed Hurricane Jose was a movie script, and shouted, “I’ll do it!”
(Via Entertainment Weekly and Blastr)