Nicolas Cage has played Charlie Kaufman and his twin brother; a doctor named Stanley Goodspeed; and a historian slash cryptologist slash treasure hunter who steals the Declaration of Independence. But now he’s taking on the most challenging role of all: himself. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is an extremely meta movie where Cage, playing famous actor Nicolas Cage, begrudgingly agrees to attend the birthday of a Mexican billionaire (for a cool $1 million), but “when things take a wild turn, the Oscar winner is forced to become a version of some of his most iconic and beloved characters in order to extricate himself from an increasingly dangerous situation,” according to EW.
It sounds wild. I can’t wait.
“It’s a stylized version of me, and the fact I even have to refer to myself in the third person makes me extremely uncomfortable,” Cage told Empire. “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.” Cage described young Nic Cage — the character, not the person, but also both? — as having the kind of chaotic energy that was on display in a 1990 episode of Terry Wogan’s talk show Wogan. “Remember that talk show I went on, Wogan, when I was promoting Wild At Heart? Young Nic Cage will be that guy,” he said. “But this is a very stylized version of me. It’s definitely just me ‘taking the piss’, as they say, out of myself.”
Please enjoy.
Cage will also “reenact” sequences from his older films, which he describes as “like walking through a Cabinet of Dr. Caligari version of Con Air and Face/Off.” (Get Travolta back, too!) The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is expected to come out in 2021.
(Via Empire)
