Imagine the cacophony of heavy metal, roaring motors, gunfire, and explosions that made Mad Max: Fury Road such a memorable roller coaster, but within the Twisted Metal universe. That almost happened, according to Brian Taylor, co-director of Crank and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, and it nearly included Nicolas Cage.
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“It was kind of like Fury Road before Fury Road in a way,” Taylor said in a recent interview with Collider. “The set pieces in Twisted Metal were kind of the same thing.” Taylor revealed that the Twisted Metal concept was so wild, and so ambitious that Sony couldn’t pony up the cash to make it happen. The Twisted Metal IP had been on the decline after the commercial floundering of its latest game, and the timing just wasn’t right.
“It became like a ‘tweener,” he said. “Sony came out with a new version of the game, didn’t really sell that well… It was a movie that felt like it needed to be $50 million, but they didn’t feel that the fanbase really merited that kind of movie; it really wanted to be more of a $15 million movie, but the nature of it with the set pieces would’ve just made it too big.”
Nic Cage As Sweet Tooth
The kicker? Nicolas Cage was supposed to star as Twisted Metal‘s terrifying mascot, Sweet Tooth. “By the way,” he said, “I wanted Nic Cage to be Sweet Tooth… Even Sweet Tooth is kind of like the Fury Road guy, you know it’s the mask and the clown with the crazy car. It kind of feels the same.”
Sadly, it just wasn’t meant to be. “It’s not worth doing it unless you can really push the envelope and do destruction people haven’t seen before. So I don’t know,” Taylor concluded, “it’s sort of in movie purgatory, but I tell ya it’s cool.”
Please, Sony if you’re out there, listen to this interview and imagine how crazy your fans would go over a film like this. The average gamer is around 35, which means that the average gamer is very familiar with how badass the Twisted Metal series was and still can be.
