Nicolas Cage to star in David Gordon Green's southern drama, 'Joe'

After starting out as a renowned indie auteur, David Gordon Green veered waaaayyyy over the mainstream cliff with movies like Pineapple Express and Your Highness. But lately it seems like he's drifting back into the other direction. He's got the long awaited Suspiria remake still gearing up at some point, and he also recently shot an low-budget flick with Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch.

Now word comes out of Toronto(a hot bed of news it seems) that Green has landed Nicolas Cage to star in Joe, a gritty southern drama based on Larry Brown's 2003 novel. Adapted for the screen by Gary Hawkins, the story follows "an ex-con who becomes the unlikeliest of role models to 15 year old Gary Jones, the oldest child of a homeless family ruled by a drunk, worthless father. Together they try to find a path to redemption and the hope for a better life in the rugged, dirty world of small town Mississippi."

Production on Joe is set to begin in November, which could spell doom for the Suspiria remake as it was set to begin at roughly the same time. So we'll just have to wait and see what happened there or if Green can somehow manage both. Seems doubtful, though. Joe seems like a film worth getting excited over. I have a hard time imagining Cage in one of Green's more reflective pieces like George Washington or All the Real Girls, so I'm curious to see exactly what the tone is going to be like.