Nicolas Cage Looked to Humphrey Bogart for Inspiration for His ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ Character

Nicolas Cage certainly has a weird history with the superhero movie realm, but it looks like his latest role within that space will be pretty unique.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Cage spoke about his role as Spider-Man Noir in the upcoming animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Seeing as Cage’s version of Peter Parker comes from the Great Depression era, Cage had to find some timely sources of inspiration.

“There are multiple Spider-Men in different dimensions that are kind of colliding together,” Cage explained. “My character’s Spider-Man Noir. He’s really Peter Parker from the ’30s. I tried to channel those noir films with [Humphrey] Bogart, and have those kinds of sounds that he might make with [James] Cagney, or Edward G. Robinson, that kind of way of talking. I tried to give the character that. It was a lot of fun. I think it should be quite funny. The movie definitely has a sense of humor, and that’s a good thing because it’s good for the whole family.”

While the words “Nicolas Cage,” “noir films,” and “Spider-Man movie” might seem bizarre in theory, it sounds like Cage’s approach to the character will hopefully be well-received.

Into the Spider-Verse is set to follow a young Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), as he navigates his role as a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man — and quickly realizes he isn’t the only one. As the film’s trailers have shown, Miles will be visited by an older incarnation of Peter Parker (probably played by Jake Johnson) as well as Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld).

The film’s cast also includes John Mulaney as Spider-Ham, Mahershala Ali as Aaron Davis, Liev Schriber as Kingpin, Lily Tomlin as May Parker, and Brian Tyree Henry as Miles’ father, Jefferson Davis.

“We are so excited about this movie, we’re so proud of it,” the film’s screenwriter, Phil Lord, said during Sony’s CinemaCon panel. “We’re thrilled to help bring the story of Miles Morales to the screen. His story is a sensation in the comics, we loved it there, and we were so inspired to try to find a way to tell his story visually that would be commensurate with that.”

“It’s his Brooklyn upbringing, it’s his culture,” producer Chris Miller added. “He’s half-Puerto Rican, half-African-American, he’s a product of a happy and alive family, he’s 13-years-old. All that tells the kind of hero he’s going to become, and we’re going to get to experience the Spider-Man legend through this new and exciting lens.”

“I’ve seen some stuff,” Johnson revealed in a recent interview. “It looks so good. That feeling in that movie, regardless of if I’m in it, is it’s going to be fucking awesome. And everything I’ve seen on it, and if I’ve seen pages on it… I, as a fan of stuff, am really interested what they’re all doing with it. And I’m really excited to see how it all comes together. Because I’ve done a bunch of animated jobs, and they all do feel different. And this one, as a fan, as somebody who’s just gonna go see it, there’s something about it that feels special.”

Are you excited to see Cage lend his talents to Into the Spider-Verse? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse will be released in theaters on Dec. 14th.