The Nicolas Cage renaissance is well and truly upon us, with the Academy Award winner’s days slumming it on the VOD circuit looking to be over after the one-two punch of universally-acclaimed independent drama Pig and phenomenal self-aware action comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent sent his stock soaring higher than it had been for a decade.
That’s not to say he’s given up on signing onto a large number of projects with reckless abandon given that he’s got Butcher’s Crossing, The Retirement Plan, The Old Way, Sympathy for the Devil, Dream Scenario, and his mouthwatering role as Dracula in black comedy horror Renfield in various stages of production, but a long-overdue return to the blockbuster arena looks to be on the cards.
Cage admitted that the reason he stopped starring in big budget studio movies was because nobody asked him to anymore, but that’s about to change if he signs on the dotted line for a pair of hotly-anticipated sequels. As per The Hollywood Reporter, the eccentric star’s resurgence has increased demand for his services, but it’s the tantalizing note that “he is in various stages of discussions for sequels to such big productions as National Treasure and Face/Off” that gets the juices flowing.
It’s been 15 years since National Treasure: Book of Secrets and 25 since Face/Off, but we could be getting both Benjamin Gates and Castor Troy at roughly the same time. The former has been slowly crawling through development for a while, with Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard admitting the latter isn’t going to work without Cage, so the ball appears to be firmly in his court for the first time in a long time.