What happens when Nicholas Cage morphs into a fictionalized, unhinged version of himself? Answer: Tom Gormican’s hilarious action-comedy, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. The film by Lionsgate Play portrays the character of “Nick Cage” as a creatively unfulfilled actor on the brink of financial ruin. When Nick gets invited to appear at superfan Javi’s (Pedro Pascal) birthday party in exchange for $1 million, things get intense – just like Cage’s best movies always do. Cue CIA operatives recruiting him to spy on said superfan, shootouts, high-speed car chases, and Mexican standoffs.
Cage lives up to his legend status in Unbearable Weight – channeling his iconic on-screen characters and even going through a “Cagedom” shrine of props and costumes that signify the actor’s storied career. It immerses the audience in nostalgia, precisely what Director Tom Gormican aimed for when he created a movie that’s “an homage to [Cage’s] body of work.”
Talking about why he chose to create a film about Cage, Gormican says, “Nicolas Cage is unbelievably talented and can do any genre. You’ve seen him in romantic comedies like Moonstruck. You’ve seen him in comedies like The Family Man. You’ve seen him in dramas. You’ve seen him in avant-garde films like Mandy and Wild at Heart. You’ve seen him in big tentpole franchises, action movies like Con Air and Face/Off and National Treasure. There are very few actors that can do every genre equally well, who can switch from comedy to drama – sometimes within the same project – and that’s fascinating to me.”
Gormican adds: “Nick has become something that transcends being an actor. He’s become a cultural figure. As culture gets stranger and stranger and fashion choices get more outlandish, you can trace a direct line back to the patron saint of strangeness, Nicolas Cage. Just seeing his face makes people happy. That’s really interesting and made me want to dig in further and find out who he actually is.”
Meanwhile, Cage revealed that he was initially reluctant to participate in the movie since he “had no interest in playing himself.” But when he read the script and understood Gormican’s vision, reluctance turned into excitement.
On what drew him into agreeing to Gormican’s intriguing and off-kilter ideas, Cage says, “I call Tom ‘The Mind’ because the film really is his fantasy, culled from perceptions in the media and on the internet, as well as blips in my personal life that have gone public. It’s mixed with knowledge of interviews I’ve done and things that have always interested me and drew me down this path. Essentially, the film is an imagination based on Tom’s interpretation of what my life might be like.”
Watch Nicholas Cage perform yet another iconic role on The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, streaming exclusively on Lionsgate Play on PLDT Home on January 19.
Credits:
- Directed by: Tom Gormican
- Written by: Tom Gormican & Kevin Etten
- Produced by: Nicolas Cage, Mike Nilon, Kristin Burr p.g.a., Kevin Turen
- Cast: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Ike Barinholtz, Alessandra
Mastronardi, Jacob Scipio, Lily Sheen, with Neil Patrick Harris, and Tiffany Haddish
Official synopsis: Nicolas Cage stars as… Nick Cage in the action-comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Creatively unfulfilled and facing financial ruin, the fictionalized version of Cage must accept a $1 million offer to attend the birthday of a dangerous superfan (Pedro Pascal). Things take a wildly unexpected turn when Cage is recruited by a CIA operative (Tiffany Haddish) and forced to live up to his legend, channeling his most iconic and beloved on-screen characters to save himself and his loved ones. With a career built for this very moment, the seminal award-winning actor must take on the role of a lifetime: Nick Cage.
