Nicolas Cage to Play Himself in New Movie The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

It’s safe to say that Nicolas Cage‘s career has taken some interesting turns over the years. Raising Arizona, Con Air, National Treasure, Face/Off, Leaving Las Vegas, Mandy, Ghost Rider — all of these movies were part of one actor’s wild career, and they’ve been followed up by a horde of peculiar, straight to DVD thrillers. Of all the strange and iconic parts Cage has played over the years, his next role might be the most Nicolas Cage role he’s ever taken on. Nicolas Cage is about to star in a new movie as the one and only, Nicolas Cage.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cage will be playing a version of himself in the new film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which was just acquired by Lionsgate. HBO Max and Paramount were also trying to land the highly-sought after project. Tom Gormican is set to direct the movie from a script he co-wrote with Kevin Etten.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is a meta movie in which Cage would star as a version of himself that’s desperately trying to land a role in a new Quentin Tarantino film in order to make himself relevant once again. At the same time, Cage is dealing with a broken relationship with his teenage daughter and talks to an imaginary ’90s version of himself that makes fun of him for the quality of his recent movies. Things get out of control when Cage, who is strapped for cash, finds out that a Mexican billionaire that he has befriended is actually a drug cartel kingpin, so the CIA hires him as a spy.

In addition to playing on the themes of Cage’s career thus far, Massive Talent will also reference some of the actor’s most popular movies, like Leaving Las Vegas, Face/Off, and Gone in 60 Seconds. THR states that the movie has tones of Adaptation, JCVD, and Get Shorty. The script was initially written as a sample comedy written by Gormican and Etten in order to get more opportunities, and they had no intention early on that it would wind up being made.

Cage got involved when Gormican sent him the script along with a letter that explained how the movie was a love letter to Cage’s work. not a piece making fun of him. This will likely be one of Cage’s biggest paydays since National Treasure.

Are you looking forward to seeing what Cage has in store for The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent? Let us know in the comments!