Two years after Nicolas Cage declared National Treasure 3 dead, director Jon Turteltaub says it’s in the works at Disney – with Cage to star. Action-adventure sequel National Treasure 3 isn’t dead after all. That’s according to the previous two films’ director, Jon Turtletaub, who says that not only is the film going to get ... National Treasure 3 is “finally real” says franchise director; Nic Cage set to return
Two years after Nicolas Cage declared National Treasure 3 dead, director Jon Turteltaub says it’s in the works at Disney – with Cage to star.
Action-adventure sequel National Treasure 3 isn’t dead after all. That’s according to the previous two films’ director, Jon Turtletaub, who says that not only is the film going to get made at Disney, but also strongly suggests that Nicolas Cage is back as franchise protagonist Benjamin Franklin Gates.
The news emerges from the National Treasure Hunt podcast (via Deadline), which has been dissecting the franchise from multiple academic standpoints for well over 100 episodes now.
Hosts Aubrey Paris and Emily Black had Turtletaub on as a guest for a live recording, which became the venue for an unexpected update on the 22 year-old on-again, off-again franchise.
“I was thinking about mentioning this tonight, I’ll say it tonight,” the director said to whoops from the audience. “It’s happening. You’re the first people I have said this out loud to.”
Turtletaub also sort-of confirmed Cage’s involvement as he sounded a note of caution.
“It’s finally real,” he said. “Now, it’s ‘Hollywood real,’ meaning things can happen. Nic gets hit by a bus, there’s no National Treasure. If I get hit by a bus, there’s probably a National Treasure. Welcome to Hollywood, that’s Hollywood.”
The filmmaker than followed it up with the good news: “We finally have a script that I like, the producers like, and Disney says, ‘Okay, this sounds like the movie we want to make.'”
The original National Treasure, in which Cage’s Ben Gates pilfered the Declaration of Independence for action adventure reasons, came out in 2004, which makes it roughly as old now as Raiders Of The Lost Ark was in the 2000s. It was soon followed by National Treasure: Book Of Secrets in 2007, then many, many years of nothing at all. A TV series, Edge Of History, streamed on Disney+ in 2022, and was cancelled.
Two years later, Cage said categorically that the franchise itself was history. “No, there is no National Treasure 3”, he said. “If you want to find treasure, don’t look at Disney, okay? It’s not there.”
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Now, though, it sounds as though things have gotten moving again. Will an actual film we can watch in a cinema result, though? We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.
