He’s an Oscar winner with a new film directed by Werner Herzog coming out (Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans), so it’s not really like Nicolas Cage needs any career advice from a blog. Let’s have some fun anyway: Isn’t it high time Cage went the biopic route in a bid for another Academy Award? Yes, yes, he’s played real people before in World Trade Center and Adaptation, but I’m convinced this pitch represents his golden ticket back to the winner’s circle of the Kodak Theatre–or wherever that year’s awards are held. Now, let’s take a closer look at that picture from up top:
Tell me you don’t see what I see: Cage IS the man to play the lead role in a screen biography of the late David Carradine.
Photo by Jano Rohleder
The star of Kung Fu and Kill Bill had a well-known “dark side,” certainly affording Cage once again the opportunity to explore deep complexities of character and make the kinds of daring acting choices that won him acclaim in early works like Leaving Las Vegas.
The whole of Carradine’s life story might not turn out to be quite as exotic as the details of his disturbing and controversial demise last June (seek and ye shall find), but with five marriages in his history and bearing the benefits and burdens of the Carradine name (a situation the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola certainly knows a thing or two about), there’s certainly enough raw material for a compelling, respectful, and eccentric feature.
Put Adrien Brody in some decent makeup to play father John Carradine (perhaps even sweeping the story from David’s youth to the modern era) and you’ve got a contender for Supporting Actor honors as well—let’s call it the Landau-Lugosi effect.
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Hello, Hollywood? I come considerably cheaper than Paul Haggis.