The 'Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent' Sequel We Want Nicolas Cage To Do
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent finally came out this weekend, to the joy of Nicolas Cage fans, and the utter confusion of Sonic the Hedgehog fans who accidentally wandered into the wrong theater. The film, starring Cage as a fictional version of himself, didn't exactly tear up the box office but did fairly well, receiving generally positive reviews. Will they ever make a sequel? That remains unclear, but if they do, here's an idea: make it all about comic books.
Cage is, of course, a massive comic fan; he literally named his son "Kal-El" (he could have just gone with "Clark," but whatever). Famously, in 2000, Cage's collection of classic comics was stolen, including the ultra-valuable Action Comics #1, featuring the first appearance of Superman. Cops got a number of fake leads over the years, including a tip that led to what initially seemed to be the Superman comic but later turned out to be a fake cover "wrapped around a woman's lingerie catalog" – presumably, that tip was called in by Biff Tannen.
Cage's Action Comics #1 was eventually found in an abandoned storage locker and returned to the actor more than a decade later – but other comics, such as Detective Comics #27, featuring the first appearance of Batman, remains lost. So wouldn't it be nice if they made a movie about Cage, as himself, going full National Treasure to get his missing comics back?
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Hollywood is already mining this story to some extent; a fictionalized heist movie account of the original theft called Action #1 has been in development for years. And the lost comics were, oddly enough, a part of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent's marketing campaign. The film's Twitter account posted a video of Cage talking about the comics, stating he wants them back and would auction them off for charity. They even set up a hotline for tips, which might just lead to the discovery of … a whole whack of lingerie catalogs.
And Cage pointedly describes this quest in very National Treasure-esque terms, calling the comics “treasures” that are probably in a “treasure chest” somewhere, waiting to be found. So was this just a PR stunt, or were Cage and company quietly sowing the seeds for their next movie? One in which he’ll discover that the real treasure was Paddington 2 all along.
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Top Image: Lionsgate
