Nicolas Cage attends the Gotham Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, Nov. 29, 2021, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Nicolas Cage stars as himself in the new trailer for The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent, premiering in US theatres on April 22, 2022.
The movie follows a debt-ridden Cage as he accepts a US$1mil offer to attend a wealthy super-fan's (Pedro Pascal) birthday party in Spain. When things turn sour and he's recruited by the CIA to help execute a mission, Cage must embody his most iconic on-screen characters to save himself and his family.
Directed by Tom Gormican, the movie also stars Tiffany Haddish, Sharon Horgan, Lily Sheen, Jacob Scipio, Ike Barinholtz and Neil Patrick Harris. The film is written by Gormican and Kevin Etten, who produces alongside Mike Nilton, Cage, Kristin Burr and Kevin Turen.
Cage told Entertainment Weekly that the fictionalised version of himself, named Nick or Nicky Cage, is "feeling unfulfilled and contending with the rejection that can happen so often in the small town that is Hollywood".
"I wasn't too excited about the idea of playing myself, but when Tom sent me this script, Nicky reminded me a little of Jerry Lewis' Buddy Love in The Nutty Professor," Cage said. "I always admired what he did with that movie. For me, Nicky steals the show."
In September, Cage told Collider that while early audiences have loved The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent, he will never see it. "It's just too much of a whacked-out trip for me to go to a movie theater and watch me play Tom Gormican's highly-neurotic, anxiety-ridden version of me." – Reuters
