First Look: Nic Cage in Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass
It looks like Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass has started filming in London where a mustachioed Nicolas Cage was seen reading a paper on the park bench. Cage has previously said of his character in the Millar comic-book adaptation, directed by Stardust and Layer Cake’s Matthew Vaughn: “I play a guy named Damon, the father of Mindy who is “Hit Girl” and I’m “Big Daddy,” and I’m training my daughter to be a superhero.”
- from Here
Another Nic Cage Stinker At Box Office; Lowest Grossing Weekend Since 2003
It wasn’t just my imagination — this turned out to be the slowest box office weekend of the entire year, and the worst weekend in 5 years. The overall weekend was expected to generate around $66 million in box-office when all the final figures are tallied on Monday, according to Media By Numbers. The last time a weekend was lower was the post-Labor Day weekend in 2003 (start date of 9/5/03) when the overall weekend generated $66.7 million. Of course, the bad weather in big parts of the country had to be a factor, too. But even with no competition since it was the only new wide release, Nicolas Cage in Lionsgate’s predictable hit man action pic Bangkok Dangerous still couldn’t attract an audience. It barely opened in 2,650 theaters for just a $7.8 million weekend — much less than the tracking showed, or about what his film Next debuted to in 2007. Clearly the only reason anyone wants to see Cage is if he’s starring in a Marvel comic book movie like Ghost Rider (and Sony is making the sequel, Ghost Rider 2) or Disney’s National Treasure franchise. Other than those, he hasn’t starred in a movie that’s made money since, like, forever. Really, Cage needs to take a long, hard look at his career since constantly appearing in bad pics like this is a price quote killer. (And he needs to pay his taxes, too.)
- from Deadline Hollywood
Nicolas Cage bombs at box office with “Bangkok”
Less than a year after starring in the biggest movie of his volatile career, Nicolas Cage led the North American box office to its worst weekend in five years on Sunday with one of his weakest.
“Bangkok Dangerous,” a thriller in which the 44-year-old actor plays a jaded assassin, opened at No. 1 with estimated three-day earnings of just $7.8 million, distributor Lionsgate said. While no one was expecting it to be a hit, industry observers had predicted it would earn more than $10 million.
The last box office champ to open lower was the David Spade comedy “Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star,” which kicked off with $6.7 million during the weekend of September 5-7, 2003.
Overall ticket sales also fell to their lowest level since then, said tracking firm Media By Numbers. The top 12 films earned $51.6 million, up from $50.5 million that weekend.
Early September is traditionally a quiet time at the box office since the summer blockbuster season is over. The studios spend the early fall quietly dumping their underperforming movies on the market. “Bangkok Dangerous” was the only new wide release this weekend.
- from Reuters
“Bangkok Dangerous” kicks off fall movie season
The fall box-office season gets off to a rather sedate start this weekend, with just one film opening in wide release — Lionsgate’s “Bangkok Dangerous,” starring Nicolas Cage and going out without advance screenings for the press.
A spokeswoman for Lionsgate said that as an action release, “Bangkok” was never going to be a critical darling. But the studio representative stressed that Lionsgate has high opening-weekend expectations for the film.
Tracking data appears to indicate a bow somewhere north of $10 million, which means that “Bangkok” should top the weekend’s box-office rankings.
DreamWorks/Paramount’s R-rated comedy “Tropic Thunder” turned in a three-peat performance atop the domestic box office last weekend with $14.6 million during the four-day holiday frame. But even a 15 percent drop from the $11.5 million that “Tropic” fetched last Friday through Sunday would give the leggy comedy a gross slightly less than $10 million this session and finally yield the weekend crown.
Focus Features’ “Hamlet 2″ also bears watching this weekend, not because it has a chance of topping the box office but to see if the well-reviewed comedy can salvage a decent theatrical run despite its wobbly expansion into wide release last weekend.
- from Reuters
Virgin Comics shuttering NY office
Virgin Comics, a team-up between Virgin Books and India-based comics publisher Gotham Entertainment that had Hollywood dreams, announced Tuesday that it is closing its New York offices and will reorganize its operations.
Citing “the current macro-economic downturn,” the company, under CEO Sharad Devarajan and president Suresh Seetharaman, said it hopse to restructure the business and consolidate its operations to a Los Angeles base.
Eight people have been laid off.
The company launched in 2006 with Sir Richard Branson, Deepak Chopra and director Shekhar Kapur among its founders. It began by publishing comics inspired by Indian/Hindu mythology and then moved into a line known as Director’s Cut, which attempted to lure filmmakers into the comic world in the hopes of subsequently getting the books set up as film projects
Guy Ritchie, John Woo, Nicolas Cage, Ed Burns, and musician Dave Stewart were among the contributors to the line, with Ritchie’s “The Game Keeper” finding a home at Warner Bros.
- from THR
Celebrating The Hairstyles of Nicolas Cage
Hollywood loves to celebrate its actors. It’s a town filled with ass kissing and handshakes. Promises to do lunch and high fives when you’ve done your third line of coke at one of Brett Ratner’s parties.
One actor that should be celebrated is Nicolas Cage. We’ve all grown up watching Cage’s movies. From drama to comedy to action, Nicolas has done it all. He’s one of American cinema’s greats and has always been a pleasure to watch on screen. But why is that? Is it his acting? His smile? His line delivery? While these things help, it’s not the reason why people flock to theaters to see him on screen. No, ladies and gentleman, it’s because in every movie, he’s wearing a different hairstyle piece.
- from, and see even more, at LR
Nicolas Cage is a ‘Kick-Ass’ ex-cop
Nicolas Cage, Aaron Johnson and Lyndsy Fonseca are set to star in “Kick-Ass,” Matthew Vaughn’s adaptation of the violent Mark Millar comic book.
Written by Millar and drawn by John Romita Jr., the Marvel Comics’ Icon imprint book centers on a high school dweeb named Dave Lizewski who decides to become a superhero even though he has no athletic ability or coordination. Things change when he eventually runs into real bad guys with real weapons.
Johnson plays the dweeb and title character, while Fonseca plays the object of the teen’s infatuation who believes Dave is gay. Cage is a former cop who wants to bring down a druglord and has trained his daughter (Chloe Moretz) to be a lethal weapon.
- from THR
Nicolas Cage and John Carpenter are “Scared Straight”
Nicolas Cage and director John Carpenter are in final negotiations to team up for a prison thriller titled “Scared Straight.”
Nu Image/Millennium Films would finance the film and is in negotiations with Contrafilm’s Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson along with Randall Emmett and George Furla to produce. Avi Lerner also would produce.
“Straight” follows a troubled youth who’s sent to prison off the Scared Straight crime-prevention program, which imprisons delinquent teens for a short period in the hopes of deterring them from a life of crime. While the teen is there, a riot breaks out and the prisoners take him hostage. A lifer, played by Cage, is forced to help the young man out.
- from THR
Nicolas Cage And Pierce Brosnan Cast In Roman Polanski’s ‘The Ghost’
Last fall, Roman Polanski announced that his next film would be an adaptation of “The Ghost,” a Richard Harris novel about a ghostwriter hired to write the memoirs of an ex-Prime Minister.
Now MTV News can announce who’ll join him.
Pierce Brosnan and Nicolas Cage have been tapped to star as the British Prime Minister Adam Lang and the unnamed ghostwriter, respectively, in the next project from the legendary, Oscar winning director, Brosnan revealed. (And, yes, it took considerable effort not to write “From Ghost Rider to ghostwriter.” You’re welcome.)
“I’m going to go off and work with Mr. Roman Polanski and Nic Cage on a film called ‘The Ghost,’” Brosnan said. “It’s a thriller.”
- from MTV
First look at Nicolas Cage in Alex Proyas’s Knowing
•Knowing, which gets its first look here, stars Nicolas Cage as a man who discovers a series of numbers that foretell catastrophes, including the9/11 attacks.
The story lines may be grim, but that doesn’t mean moviegoers won’t pay good money to see apocalypse now. Last year’s I Am Legend, with Will Smith as one of the planet’s last inhabitants, raked in $256 million.
“Hollywood is a reactive industry, not a trend-setting one, and these themes strike a chord with audiences,” says Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo. “It was big in the 1970s and is having a bit of a comeback.”
In Knowing, Cage discovers a letter buried in a time capsule outside a school. It doesn’t mean anything to him until he sees the digits 911, which sets him on a course to prevent further catastrophes.
Cage acknowledges that 9/11 remains a fresh wound for American moviegoers, and films that touch on the terrorist attacks have suffered their own curse. “I know that number jumps out at people,” he says. “But that’s just a beginning point for the movie. And that doesn’t mean you can’t mention it. It’s time for a return to dark thrillers that are relevant. We’re already living in a world where up is down.”
Director Alex Proyas (I, Robot) says that although film should never lose its aim to entertain, “there’s still a need to address what’s going on in people’s lives. Hopefully, we do it in a light that’s a positive experience but still responsible.”
- from USAtoday
