Nicolas Cage seems to be toying with the idea of leaving movies behind for pastures new… and it’s all Bryan Cranston’s fault.
Nicolas Cage seems to be seriously considering leaving the world of movies behind. For anybody that’s spent far too much time pondering what ‘Late Stage Cage’ might look like, well, we’re sorry to tell you that it might not look like much at all. Not on a cinema screen at least.
Apparently, Cage finally got around to watching Breaking Bad and is now sold on the creative possibilities afforded by long-form storytelling. In his words:
“I do want to explore other formats,” Cage told Uproxx. “I am very interested in immersion streaming with episodic television. I have seen things that can be done now with characters and the time they’re given to express themselves. I saw Bryan Cranston stare at a suitcase for an hour on one episode of Breaking Bad. We don’t have time to do that in a feature film, so maybe television is the next best step for me. We’ll see.”
So Cage apparently wants to explore a medium where he can stare at things for an hour. In fairness, we’d spend an hour staring at Cage whilst he stared at something. Perhaps then, this will work to everybody’s benefit. As for his future on the silver screen, the actor had this to say:
“After 45 years of doing this; that in over 100 movies – I feel I’ve pretty much said what I’ve had to say with cinema. And I’d like to leave on a high note and say, ‘Adios.’ I think I have to do maybe three or four more movies before I can get there, and then hopefully switch formats and go into some other way of expressing my acting.”
Cage added that he would have liked to have gone out on a high with a film like the recently-released Dream Scenario, but he added, “I have other contracts that I have to fulfill, so we’ll see what happens. I mean, I am going to be very severe and very astringent [sic] on the selection process moving forward.”
Well, this isn’t the worse news, we suppose. In fact, episodic TV might mean we actually get more Cage. We always wondered if a late stage career turn might see him head into something obscure like performance art or puppetry, but this we can handle. We think. Cage will next be seen in the indie drama, The Surfer which we’re very much looking forward to. He’s also signed up for a Lord Of War sequel and you can read more about that project here.
