Home Entertainment Nicolas Cage is getting LEFT BEHIND

Nicolas Cage is getting LEFT BEHIND

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Nicolas Cage’s agent has the easiest job in the world, as it’s become abundantly clear over the last few years that there is no movie script on the face of this Earth that Cage will turn down (I’m still eagerly awaiting Schindler’s Fist).

So when it was announced that Christian themed Rapture film and book series, Left Behind, was getting a mainstream reboot with Nic Cage as the star, the only thing that surprised me was that it wasn’t done sooner. I mean the guy that played a Hell-bound spirit of vengeance is just perfect for this, right?!

For those of you unfamiliar with it, the Left Behind book series written by Jeff LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins consisted of 16, yes 16 novels detailing the experiences of a group of people who not only wake up to find the Earth in chaos as millions of people have vanished in the biblical Rapture, but also discover that they are to be the new saints in the 7 year period of strife known as the Tribulation, during which God is supposed to rain down judgement on Earth and after which the Second Coming will take place. These saints, now known as the Tribulation Force will try to save as many lost people as they can during this time, but also do battle against the Antichrist, who has taken the form of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and who is supposedly spearheading the efforts to restore global order.

The books were eventually adapted into a trilogy of rather low budget movies between 2000 and 2005, starring “Growing Pains” star turned fervent outspoken Christian evangelist, Kirk Cameron, and it’s these films and Cameron’s role that Cage is looking to reboot.

The newly planned big budget trilogy of films will be directed by world famous stuntman, sorry let me correct that, The World’s Greatest Stuntman, Vic Armstrong. Armstrong has been doing high profile stunt work on just about every major Hollywood franchise for the last couple decades, and also acted as second unit  “action” director on Salt, The Green Hornet, Thor and The Amazing Spider-Man, so he certainly knows his way around an action sequence.

The question will be whether he will be able to tell this story -which you have to admit, religious beliefs aside, could make for some big budget spectacle -in such a way that it doesn’t become so preachy that it scares off the non-religious crowd. Also, there is the Nicolas (Un)Cage(d) factor to deal with. Keep his crazy in check (and I here I recommend an extensive array of pharmaceuticals and/or a stout stick) and he’s a capable leading man, but allow him free reign with his wildman voodoo and… Well, I’m still not sure how I’m going to pay my therapist’s bill after Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

Last Updated: October 23, 2012

6 Comments

  1. Hahahahaha! I just canned myself reading this. Thanks Kervyn! Cage and his crazy eyes have left me sleepless many a night, not sure watching him in a Cra(g)zy movie about the end of the world is going to help…

    Reply

  2. James Francis

    October 23, 2012 at 10:06

    It’s a really, really odd pick. I’m a bit of a closet fan of the Left Behind movies – as far as I know only three were made. There is no way to ‘mainstream’ the material, unless the mainstream are fringe Christian groups convinced that the end times are upon us all. The dialogue and very storyline is far too embedded in the relevant themes to extract them. Let me put it this way: unless you are really into the stuff that end-timers all believe, it’s actually a rather dull collection.

    Does this mean Nick Cage has turned evangelist? Or is he this desperate for a role? I’d have thought they’d ask Stephen Baldwin first…

    My advice to Nick: if you want to reboot your career on obscure religious books, consider L. Ron Hubbard’s Mission Earth series instead.

    Reply

    • Kervyn Cloete

      October 23, 2012 at 10:22

      Cage has repeatedly refused to talk about his religious beliefs in the past, but based on the fact that for Ghost Rider he was getting his voodoo on on-set, I doubt that he’s very Christian.

      Yeah, i’m not too sure how they’re going to be able to sell this to a wider audience, but then again I’m not the one getting paid the big bucks to figure it out.

      Reply

      • James Francis

        October 23, 2012 at 11:25

        The man did once, though, talk about conversations with his cat while high on shrooms.

        Reply

  3. Darryn_Bonthuys

    October 23, 2012 at 11:11

    And the meme fans rejoiced, when Nicolas Cage began stumbling around abandoned cities, awkwardly pausing to deliver broken lines while screaming like a madman, once again covered in bees…

    – Sony 16:9

    Reply

  4. DarthofZA

    October 23, 2012 at 13:23

    I really don’t see why they’re doing this… unless this is going to be based on the series in the same way that most comic book movies are based on the comics, and what we’re going to get is something completely new and originial.

    The original series was rather boring and not really interesting beyond giving a visual experience of LaHaye’s version of the endtimes. As far as the endtimes go, almost all Biblical scholars agree that his version is very unlikely and not very Biblical at all. So you wouldn’t really be able to use the movies as an evangelistic tool, and like I said, the movies were really boring to start off with.

    Reply

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