Nicolas Cage May Take on the Role of a Lifetime: Nicolas Cage

Actor in talks to play himself in the film “Massive Talent”

Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage in 2010.
Guillaume Paumier/Creative Commons

Playing yourself on film is something a rarefied group of actors have done, including Peter Falk, John Malkovich and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Perhaps it’s fitting that the next actor to join this club could be viewed as the Venn diagram overlap of all 3. That’s right: Nicolas Cage might play Nicolas Cage in the forthcoming film Massive Talent.

Some of Cage’s recent onscreen appearances have tapped into his ineffable qualities and penchant for the bizarre, including Panos Cosmatos’s Mandy and Richard Stanley’s forthcoming H.P. Lovecraft adaptation Color Out of Space. (Though some have been more successful than others.) 

But at his best, Cage remain an unpredictably compelling presence with amazing acting chops. And a recent interview with The New York Times Magazine was an impressive reminder that Cage is also a fascinating human being. What actor wouldn’t want to play such an outsize role? 

Dark Horizons reports that Cage is currently in negotiations to star in the film. If it goes through, audiences will see a version of Cage who “is desperate to get a role in a new Tarantino movie while also dealing with a mountain of debt and a strained relationship with his teenage daughter.” Also in the mix: the CIA and the head of a drug cartel. 

According to the article, Cage will also periodically converse with “an egotistical 1990s version of himself.” Imagine, if you will, a version of Face/Off where Nicolas Cage swaps faces with…Nicolas Cage. There’s your elevator pitch. 

Will this film be Peak Nicolas Cage? Is such a thing even possible? Only Nicolas Cage knows for sure. 

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