Everyone knows Nicolas Cage loves superheroes. In addition to his stage name being a reference to a famous Marvel superhero (Power Man) and portrays Ghost Rider in the two movies, he also named his son Kal-El, as only Nicolas Cage would. Receiving the Variety Legend & Groundbreaker Award at Miami Film Festival Sunday, Cage used the moment to discuss, what else, superhero movies.
When asked about the genre, Cage admitted that he “has to be nice with Marvel movies because I named myself after a Stan Lee character named Luke Cage.” As a result, Cage considers the late Lee his “surreal father,,” who “named me.” Cage is one of a kind.
Nevertheless, he understands that the complaints about Marvel movies have less to do with the actual characters and more to do with the abundance of superhero movies. He has been seen Warehouseso it’s not like he’s unaware of the state of cinema.
“I understand what the frustration is,” he said. “I understand that. But I think there’s plenty of room for everyone. I watch movies like Warehouse. I watch all kinds of artistic and independently run films. I think there’s plenty of room for everyone.”
In the end, despite playing Ghost Rider and a Spider-man, Cage has no interest in joining the MCU because: “I don’t need to be in the MCU, I’m Nic Cage.” He finds no arguments here.
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As usual these days the conversation returned to superhero movies and not follow-up questions about whether Lydia Tár is real and whether Cage knows her. Instead, Cage addressed the perennial topic of conversation in geekdom: Tim Burton is unmade Superman lives.
“They wanted Renny Harlin to do the movie,” he said. “I sat down with Renny. I did another picture, he came to the trailer, and we talked. I liked Renny, but I thought if I was going to do this, it’s such an ass to beat. I said it must be Tim Burton. I called Tim and said, ‘Do you want to do this?’ Tim didn’t cast me, I cast Tim and Tim said yes. I loved what he did with Michael (Keaton) and Batman and I was a big fan.”
Cage provided some tips for what it Superman movie would have been like, and, man, this should have been made. “It was more of a 1980s Superman with, like samurai black long hair,” he said. “I thought it was going to be a completely different, kind of emo Superman, but we never got there.”
So why couldn’t Cage and Burton get emo Superman off the ground? Cage theorizes that it has to do with great Tim Burton movie Mars Attacks!
“I love Mars attack. I thought Mars attack was just a great, groundbreaking movie. He is a trailblazer! But they were afraid at the studio because Mars attack. Warner Brothers had lost a lot of money on the film. These movies that are really weird, that challenge and break ground, they piss off a lot of people. I think they got cold feet. They had already spent a lot of money building the sets and the costume and what have you. But you never know. I don’t mean to be cryptic Cage, but you never know!”
As much as we don’t like him being “cryptic Cage,” we love the nickname and welcome more alliteration in Cage’s life.
(via Variety)