Nicolas Cage has inked a deal to join Brian Taylor’s domestic horror, Mom and Dad.
In the works at Armory Films, Cassian Elwes and XYZ Films, The Wrap has learned that the project is currently being shopped to international distributors at Berlin Film Festival, with Taylor (Crank) eyeing a production start in the summer.
As for Cage’s involvement, he’s on board to play a human, funny and wholly scary father, and is one of the many parents to ignite 24 hours of mass panic after turning violent on his children. But The Purge this is not. While on paper Mom and Dad shares many of the psychological and thriller tenets of the genre, Taylor’s feature will chronicle the story of a teenage girl and her younger brother – both yet to be cast – as they desperately try to survive the night.
In a statement released alongside Cage’s casting, director Brian Taylor expressed his own excitement to work with the Oscar winner, who continues to perplex as much as he amazes, with character-driven performances in Joe to the more eccentric turns in films like The Wicker Man.
“This is the kind of role Nic was put here to play. Human, funny, scary — somehow grounded while at the same time completely off the rails. For a filmmaker, there is nothing quite like the experience of Nic Cage bringing a character you’ve written to life.”
Armory Films will fire up production on Mom and Dad come July, with a release expected in the early stages of 2017.