Nicolas Cage will Hunt Osama Bin Laden in Satirical 'Army of One'

Forget Zero Dark Thirty and the massive manhunt to capture Osama Bin Laden, the real story is that of average joe, Gary Faulkner. In 2010 he became famous for sneaking into Pakistan, armed with some simple weapons, in an effort to track down Bin Laden when the military couldn't. Faulkner got his 15 minutes of fame, and now it's getting extended as his story is being brought to the big screen in a film starring Nicolas Cage.

Cage is set to play Faulkner in the political satire, Army of One, which will be directed by Borat's Larry Charles. Scott Rothman and Rajiv Joseph (Draft Day) wrote the script based on a GQ article which shed light on Faulkner's strange story. He was a regular Colorado construction worker who became an overnight celebrity after his arrest in Pakistan and claims of trying to hunt Bin Laden.

With Charles at the helm one has to wonder if this will be a semi-improvised effort similar to Borat, and if so it could be amazing to see how Cage performs. [Deadline]

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Travis' Picks for the Worst Movies of 2014

Being a film critic is pretty awesome. Straight up, it's a lot of fun if you're someone who loves movies as much as I do. But damn, do I hate it sometimes, too. I always hear "Oh, it must be great doing what you do" and that much is true...when the movies are good. But when they suck so does this job because I can't simply go home and forget about it. I have to actually keep these movies in mind for longer than I'd care to. Want to sit around and think about Justin Long in a walrus suit? Me neither, but that's what I had to do after Tusk.

And in general I take no pleasure in tearing down another person's hard work, but sometimes the movies are so bad it's pretty tough. There were so many good movies this year that the ones which made me want to run from the theater screaming in agony stand out like a sore thumb.  The movies that appear on this list are what I consider the worst of the worst. Some are major studio efforts with huge budgets, others are smaller indie movies. No excuses; big or small if the movie sucked and I had to endure it then this is where it belongs. 

Be sure to check out the rest of our end-of-the-year review here!

Maladies (review here)

Sometimes James Franco outsources his pretentious, experimental flicks to his buddies. Directed by some dude with the single monicker of "Carter" (douche alert!!!) , this painful, unfunny existential comedy is one of those "art imitating life" pieces celebrities love. Franco plays a former actor (he watches himself on General Hospital THROUGHOUT THE DAMN MOVIE) with a mental disorder who gives it up to be a serious author. If Maladies were a person I'd want to shove it in the lockers or give it a swirlie. The worst thing about it is the lost opportunity and wasted cast. There's a good story to be had in an actor of Franco's stature trying to start anew in a different field, but instead what we get is a dull series of oddball occurrences that make no sense, with increasingly bizarre characters we could care less about. Catherine Keener plays his cross-dressing friend; Fallon Goodson and her moony eyes plays his nutso sister; and David Strathairn is the neighbor infatuated with Franco. And through it all Franco is struggling to kind of play himself. Whatever, man. Fortunately, nobody is EVER going to see Maladies unless they seek it out and then why in the world would you do that?

Winter's Tale (review here)

What the **** was Winter's Tale about? No, seriously. Look, I know the book by Mark Helprin pretty well, and never thought for a second that it should be made into a movie. Why? Because it makes no sense. It involves flying horses and time warps and thieves and devils and...wait, is this Lord of the Rings or something? No, it's a quasi-religious soup starring Colin Farrel as a thief who falls in love with the girl whose house he's trying to rob. Oh, and she's dying. And he's being chased by a demon mob boss played by Russell Crowe. Will Smith is in this, too. Don't ask him about it because he'll deny it but he plays a sewer-dwelling Satan. How does this cast come together for such a doughy pantload as this? Blame writer/director Akiva Goldsman, an uber-producer who must have won a bet or something. 

Behaving Badly (review here)

The obvious joke here is that the people who made this movie behaved badly by allowing it to happen. This wretched high school comedy stars Nat Wolff, Elisabeth Shue, Mary Louise Parker, Heather Graham, and a perky Selena Gomez; a cast I could watch all day under other circumstances. But it's one of those films that wants so badly to be raunchy that it ends up looking kind of desperate. 90 torturous minutes go by without a single laugh, and you know things have taken an awful turn when Shue, Gomez, and Graham at their most frisky doesn't help. Not even the most die-hard Gomez fans can justify her being in this. There should be a penalty. Reduced fan club numbers. Banned albums. Something.

Jimi: All is by My Side (review here)

How do you make a movie about Jimi Hendrix without being able to do use his music? Why the Hell would you want to? Points to Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley for trying to do something different with Jimi: All is by My Side, taking an approach that emphasizes the mood of the era and the personality of the man rather than focusing on his music. Unfortunately, the man is played by Andre Benjamin who seems stuck in a perpetual "Purple Haze". He simply lacks the enigmatic aura to play Hendrix, and without the iconic music that made him famous there is a hole that simply can't be filled.

Tusk (review here)

I love Kevin Smith. Really. Well, more accurate is I love Kevin Smith's old work. He hasn't really made a good movie outside of the View Askew universe, though, and Tusk is the absolute worst thing he's ever done. Cop Out looks pretty awesome by comparison, that's how bad this is. Non-nonsensical, poorly staged, unfunny, and painfully timid, Tusk accomplishes zero of what Smith was probably aiming for. It doesn't work as a horror because the sight of Justin Long in a fat suit is comical, and since Long is aggravating as shit anyway we kind of root for his continued torture. Only his grunts of shame sound authentic, and they probably had nothing to do with the suit. While Michael Parks' delightfully goofy performance as his captor is one to seek out, you'll be too freaked out by the appearance of Johnny Depp as a Pepe le Pew caricature, who will be in the next two movies as well. Yes, Tusk is the beginning of a godforsaken trilogy, one that wild horses couldn't drag me to see.  Just keep saying to yourself, Travis, "Clerks 3 is coming, Clerks 3 is coming..."

Exodus: Gods and Kings (review here)

This one is almost too fresh. The wounds from Ridley Scott's disastrous Biblical monstrosity are still unhealed. Boasting a red sea of special effects but not a single droplet of heart or faith, the white-washed cast is only the most visible of its many issues. Scott, who has decided all of his movies must look exactly the same from now on (that's how he keeps getting $150M budgets to squander), is more interested in the CGI plagues than he is in the story of Moses. Christian Bale does his best to portray the Hebrew savior despite a script that does him no favors, but when he's asked to squabble with a bite-sized version of God it's just too ridiculous to overcome.

Are You Here (review here)

Amy Poehler's funny. So is Owen Wilson. Zach Galifianakis has his moments. Are You Here is not a funny movie. At all. Not only is it not funny, but it's hard to figure exactly what it was trying to do. It just sits there like a lead balloon without any kind of perspective or narrative thrust, but at least it's so flat you don't wonder why there's a question mark missing in the title. Supposedly this was about a womanizing weatherman played by Wilson at his most irritating, who joins his eccentric tree-hugging pal (Galifianakis) to figure out what to do with a huge inheritance. I can barely remember any of that. Good for Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner for making his directorial debut and all, but he might want to stick with TV.

The Bag Man (review here)

The Bag Man is about a guy carrying a bag. The end. Okay, that's not exactly true but not really far off. This seedy, half-baked attempt at film noir stars that guy who used to be John Cusack (I refuse to believe he's the guy I loved in High Fidelity and Better Off Dead) as a criminal charged with holding on to a bag with mysterious, supposedly important contents. He can't look in the bag or let others get it, otherwise a pompadoured Robert De Niro will get really angry. The entire two hours is spent keeping the mystery of the bag's contents. You won't care what's in it. You'll be too bored to care what's in it. And when you find out you'll be pissed at the time wasted trying to figure it out.

The Legend of Hercules (review here)

It almost seems unfair putting The Legend of Hercules so high on this list. It never really had a chance, did it? Not with goblin-faced Twilight mass Kellan Lutz as the mythological hero, and not with the washed-up Renny Harlin behind the camera. Lutz flexes his considerable muscle while Harlin struggles with murky 3D special effects he clearly doesn't understand and we don't give a crap about, anyway. Tedious and badly acted, the film doesn't even appeal to somebody like me who adores the stories of Greek myth. If there's an upside it's the commanding performance by supporting actor Liam McIntyre (Spartacus), who uses his gladiatorial experience to overshadow Lutz in just about every way. To be fair, Dwayne Johnson couldn't make a Hercules movie work later in the year, but that's not an excuse for this movie being so terrible.

And So It Goes (review here)

This one was tough because I like Rob Reiner. A lot. Meathead is the man as far as I'm concerned. And I appreciate that he wants to make simple, harmless comedies nowadays, although it's probably because that's the box Hollywood has sealed him up in. And So It Goes might have been pretty good in 1987 or something, but now it might as well be covered in moss. Michael Douglas plays a crotchety, totally racist womanizing real estate agent who is forced to become guardian to the granddaughter he didn't know existed. Meanwhile, Diane Keaton is his chirpy next door neighbor who you just know he's going to hook up with after they're done arguing for 80 minutes. It's all pretty distasteful, cheap in its sentiments, and the kind of dud that could destroy any hope for older skewing comedies.

Rage (review here)

Just when you thought Nicolas Cage was bouncing back, his performance in Joe a reminder how good he can be, the guy goes and drops a stinker like Rage. This plodding, atrocious revenge thriller is dumb even by Cage standards, and features one of most fantastically bad final scenes ever. Directed incompetently by Paco Cabezas stars Cage as former criminal now a semi-respected citizen who goes on a demented crusade of violence when his daughter is murdered. Supposedly there's some kind of question as to who killed her? But a mystery only matters if you care about the suspects or the victims, and this thinly-drawn, distasteful piece of crap doesn't come close to making that happen.

Were there more that could have made the list? Hell yeah! Too many, in fact.  Marlon Wayans' A Haunted House 2 where he (again) has sex with inanimate objects....Simon Pegg makes everybody sad with the unfunny, condescending Hector and the Search for Happiness....Race relations gets set back a few years by Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer in Black or White...Trust Me proves Clark Gregg should never ever leave the Marvel universe....Not even Pierce Brosnan could save bland espionage flick, The November Man...and I bet you already forgot Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit was a thing, didn't you?

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Trailer for Paul Schrader's 'The Dying of the Light' starring Nicolas Cage

During the same week Paul Schrader was inflicting Lindsay Lohan and The Canyons on us, he was also gearing up his next project, The Dying of the Light. He was taking over a film that sounded pretty awesome a few years ago back when Nicolas Winding Refn, Harrison Ford, and Channing Tatum were involved. Schrader ended up with Nicolas Cage and Anton Yelchin for the terrorism thriller, and if that sounds like a step down that's because it is.

The first trailer for the film has been released and it predictably looks terrible, par for the course for both Cage and Schrader of late. Apparently Schrader is a little bit embarrassed by how bad it is, too, as he left the project last month after a run-in with producers over the final cut. They say he quit after rejecting their notes, while he says they effectively pushed him out. All of that will get get sorted out behind-the-scenes, but the problem now is that the film will likely end up where most Nicolas Cage movies do; in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart.  He plays a CIA agent with dementia trying to track down a global terrorist, with Yelchin as his young partner. Meh. Even the poster looks like a hack job.

The Dying of the Light opens December 5th. 


Dying of the Light Official Trailer #1 (2014) - Nicolas Cage Movie HD. by TrailerNow

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Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen Battle Medieval Warriors in Trailer for 'Outcast'

Here's one you probably haven't heard about, or just forgot about in the seemingly endless string of crap Nicolas Cage somehow finds time to star in. A couple of years ago Cage agreed to star alongside Hayden "Don't call me Anakin" Christensen in Outcast, an action flick set in feudal China. With stuntman-turned-director Nick Powell making his directorial debut, it certainly had all the earmarks of a potential disaster. Hey, that's exactly what I wrote back then...

"This sounds potentially disastrous. Cage will always be entertaining in some small way, but Christensen hasn't done anything good since Shattered Glass, and certainly can't match his co-star in terms of sheer insanity." The film was supposed to come out last year but now it's been completed and there's a trailer which....aww heck, just check it out for yourself. You know it's awful.

Outcast TRAILER 1 (2015) - Nicolas Cage, Hayden Christensen Warrior Epic Movie HD by MOVIES Coming Soon

Bad accents and worse hair are the major takeaways from this piece of crap, which has Cage as a battle-hardened knight looking to make amends for the slaughtering he did in the Crusades by searching for his friend in Ancient China. There's a lot more to this convoluted plot that you can suss out through the official synopsis:

Ancient China - Princess Lian and her younger brother, Zhao, flee for their lives when their father, the Emperor, is murdered by his ambitious eldest son Shing. Pursued by Shing's black guards, the royal runaways find protection in the form of Arken, a hardened knight seeking redemption from the traumatic nightmares of the Crusades as he searches for his former friend and mentor, Gallain, now a notorious bandit on the silk road. Their gruelling journey sees an unlikely romance bloom between the refined princess and the gruff warrior and Zhao learns the true meaning of leadership from this western warrior. Setting aside their differences, Aarken and Gallain once again fight side by side in an epic and unwinnable battle against Shing and his forces - only this time they are fighting for something they both believe in.

Outcast opens on February 27th 2015, which you'll be "shocked" to learn is the armpit of the movie season. Go figure.

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The Rapture Can't Stop Nicolas Cage in Trailer for 'Left Behind'

There aren't many things in the world that can put a dent in Nicolas Cage's mojo. Endless runs of bad movies don't hurt him. Being the butt of jokes doesn't hurt. Not being able to play Superman doesn't hurt him. Even the almighty IRS falls to the sheer power of Cage. And apparently, not even the Rapture can hold a candle to him, at least that seems to be the point behind the new trailer for Left Behind.

Yes, it just looks like a longer, poorly-made version of HBO's The Leftovers but the fact is Left Behind has been around for a minute. It's based on the popular series of faith-based books that explore what happens to the people LEFT BEHIND (!!!!!!) after the Rapture. A battle between good and evil is about to erupt and if you guessed the Antichrist is behind it then all that time spent at Sunday School was worth it.

Also starring Cassie Thomson, Jordin Sparks, and Chad Michael Murray but with 100% less Kirk Cameron than the 2003 version, Left Behind opens October 3rd.

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Snap Judgments Review: 'Rage' Starring Nicolas Cage

In Paco Cabezas' revenge-thriller, Rage, Nicolas Cage plays a former gangster-turned-businessman whose past comes back to haunt him when his daughter is kidnapped. Finding the cops to be less than helpful, and encouraged by his wife (Rachel Nichols), he rounds up the old crew and starts cracking skulls around town in hopes of uncovering the truth, only to learn there's more to her disappearance than meets the eye.

Also starring Peter Stormare and Danny Glover, Rage is available now On Demand and hits DVD/Blu-Ray August 12th. Check out my Snap Judgments review of Rage below!

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Trailer for Nicolas Cages' 'Left Behind' Remake Is Predictably Terrible

It was always going to be a union packed with unintentional comic potential, having Nicolas Cage star in a remake of Left Behind, the far right sci-fi novels adapted into awful movies with Kirk Cameron. As usual for Cage, if he takes one great step forward with a movie like Joe (he's brilliant in it, by the way), he takes a giant leap backwards soon after, and now that the Left Behind trailer is here this definitely looks like another one of his paycheck gigs.

The first clip released some time ago didn't promise much, and now we see why. Looking cheap and vaguely unfinished in the same way the Atlas Shrugged movies did, the film features an overacting Cage ("I know you all want answers AND SO DO I"!!!) as a man LEFT BEHIND after a number of people suddenly vanish in the Rapture. The story follows the survivors who must try to understand and cope with the enormity of what has occurred. Adding to the TV movie feel of this are a cast of TV regulars led by Chad Michael Murray and Cassi Thomson, along with Jordin Sparks, Nicky Whelan, Lea Thompson, and Olympic athlete Lolo Jones (!!!).

All snark aside, Christian-themed movies have been doing gangbusters at the box office, and considering the best selling source material Left Behind will probably find a big audience on October 3rd.

Post by Left Behind.

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Nicolas Cage is 'The Runner'; Djimon Hounsou and Alexis Knapp are 'One'

* If one wants to find out what Nicolas Cage will be doing for the next two years, just wait for Cannes to roll around. That's when he piles up his slate with a ton of projects, and he's just added another. He'll star in The Runner as an idealistic New Orleans congressman who becomes embroiled in a sex scandal in the wake of the 2010 BP oil spill. Austin Stark will be making his directorial debut on this one, with production to begin next month.

* Djimon Hounsou and Alexis Knapp will star in One, a post-apocalyptic thriller that sounds like The Stand meets Divergent. Written and directed by Australian filmmaker Murali Thalluri, the story is set in a world after a virus has wiped out 99% of humanity, leaving those who have survived divided into racial groups all fighting for a cure. Knapp will play a captured woman who is mysteriously immune to the virus. [Variety]

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Nicolas Cage will 'Pay the Ghost'; Halle Berry Joins 'Kidnap'; Olivia Thirlby Rises for 'Phoenix'

* Nicolas Cage will star in the forever-developing adaptation of Pay the Ghost, a supernatural thriller based on Tim Lebbon's short story. Dennis Illiadis (Plus One) had been attached to direct but he has since dropped out and the search for a new helmer is on. Dan Kay's screenplay follows "a hard-working NYU English professor bucking for tenure when his 8-year-old son mysteriously vanishes from a Halloween day parade." The boy's presence begins to make itself known in frightening ways a year later, leading to a search through New York City and the discovery of a vengeful spirit. [Variety]

* As far as generic movie titles go does it get any worse than Kidnap? That's the film Halle Berry has just become a part of, which is directed by Luis Prieto (that Pusher remake nobody saw) and is about a mother who will stop at nothing to rescue her kidnapped son. Well, The Call sounded super lame too and Berry took it to $70M so maybe the joke will be on us again.

* Olivia Thirlby, last seen fighting crime in Dredd, has come aboard Phoenix, directed by Robert Redford's daughter, Amy. Justin Bartha and Constance Zimmer also star in the romance about "a one-night stand between love-averse strangers that sends them on a 4,000-mile trip from Brooklyn to the Grand Canyon and back." [ScreenDaily]

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Emma Thompson and Daniel Bruhl are 'Alone in Berlin'; Nicolas Cage and Jack Huston Board 'The Trust'

Cannes is underway right now, and that means not only are some of the year's most anticipated films having premieres, but deals are being struck left and right. And now we have two more that feature a pair of veterans paired with young up 'n comers.

First up, Emma Thompson will star with Daniel Bruhl and Mark Rylance (The Other Boelyn Girl) in Alone in Berlin. Vincent Perez is directing the adaptation of Hans Fallada's book which follows an ordinary couple in the titular city as they mount an extraordinary act of resistance against Nazi rule after their son is killed fighting in WWII.

And next up are Nicolas Cage and Jack Huston (American Hustle), who will play dirty cops trying to discover the contents of a safe in The Trust. Their desire to find out what's inside thrusts them in the middle of a fight for their lives. Hopefully there's a little more meat to the story than that, but the combo of Cage and Huston could be fun. Ben and Alex Brewer will be directing. 

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Nicolas Cage Shows His 'Rage' In New Trailer

So you know that big comeback Nicolas Cage made in David Gordon Green's acclaimed southern drama, Joe? Well...since nobody saw the film (I did, and loved it immensely) nobody can vouch for that comeback. And so Cage is back doing what he's infamous for, namely starring in crap paycheck movies like Rage, which had been going by the title Tokarev except nobody knew what the frig that meant.

Directed by Paco Cabezas and co-starring Rachel Nichols, Peter Stormare, and Danny Glover, a trio that ensures crap awaits, the film has Cage as an ex-con whose past comes back to haunt him. Russian mobsters kidnap his daughter in hopes of recovering some stolen cash, while Cage's character tries not to slip back into old criminal habits. Looks like he fails spectacularly.

Oddly enough, if you go to the film's Wikipedia page it basically lay out the entire plot for those inclined to read it. You may enjoy it more than this horrible, cheap-looking trailer. Rage is expected to open later this year and probably turn up on Blu-Ray the next day or something.

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Review: David Gordon Green's 'Joe' Starring Nicolas Cage and Tye Sheridan

Now that Matthew McConaughey has had his McConaissance, Nicolas Cage has to be next in line for an extreme career makeover. Once one of Hollywood's most esteemed actors with an Oscar on the shelf, his financial issues have bled over into his work, starring in a series of increasingly awful paycheck flicks that probably wouldn't get made without his name attached. Every actor takes a paycheck gig at one point or another, but Cage has turned it into a sad art. And so it makes sense for him to team up with David Gordon Green, the indie auteur back after a run of terrible stoner and sex comedies. Both men could use a change, and the impassioned, rugged backwater drama Joe is the best work from both men in a very long time.

Part Winter's Bone with a dash of last year's Mud (McConaughey's actual best film from last year), Joe continues Green's exploration of the economically-depressed, further damaged by generations of physical and emotional abuse. Set in a squalid rural Texas town, Cage plays Joe Ransom, who runs a team hired to poison trees so the lumber company can chop them down. Joe seems like a good and fair man, but there's a rage that's always on the verge of finding its way. There's a "devil inside of him", as one character alludes to at one point, and inn a way that makes him perfect for the ugly, grim town in which he's chosen to live. Early on we're introduced to Gary (Tye Sheridan, also of Mud), a troubled 15-year-old boy with an abusive father in Wade (Gary Poulter) who is too drunk to care for their homeless family. But Joe sees something in Gary; perhaps it's just the chance to save a damaged kid before he's too far gone, the way nobody did for him.

The threat of violence all around them, from old grudges to drunken patriarchs, Joe and Gary find in one another a calming escape. Joe takes the boy under his wing, feeding his work ethic and steering him as far away from Wade as possible. But Joe has trouble keeping his rage bottled up. An ex-con with a booze problem and a mysterious past in a psychiatric ward, Joe is known to everybody in town, including the police. Occasionally the monster gets let out of the bottle and blood gets spilled; like when a past enemy comes paying a visit, or when his favorite whore's security dog barks too much. Joe's constant struggles, and frequent failure, to overcome his weaknesses make for a despairing tale, but Green finds moments of levity in this deep woods bromance.

Adapted from Larry Brown's manly novel, Joe is populated with a wealth of heartless characters performing despicable acts. Some, like Joe's enemy Willie (Ronnie Gene Blevins), wear wickedness on their sleeves. Others, like Wade, reveal their murderous depths mostly in secret. Joe's quest for redemption, to make up for past wrongs, is ultimately what gives the film its incredible heart. Cage has never felt larger, like more of a superstar, in one of his most understated performances. It's a pleasure to watch him portray such a layered, nuanced character again, and he's clearly relishing the opportunity. In his young career, Sheridan has worked with the likes of Terrence Malick and Jeff Nichols, directors who, like Green, have a similar poetic sensibility. But his role here is considerably more adult than anything before, nicely capturing the mood of a kid burdened with responsibilities beyond his years. Poulter, a homeless man who gives a terribly frightening debut performance, died not long after shooting was completed.

Joe is a beautiful film, told with subtlety and grace. Like the titular character, Green and Cage need to continue down this path of redemption rather than slip into old habits.

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First Trailer and Poster for David Gordon Green's 'Joe' Starring Nicolas Cage

It may be hard to remember, considering his string of ridiculous throwaway flicks, but Nicolas Cage used to be an actor worthy of praise rather than mockery. Perhaps all he needed was for a director to step up and give him the right material to flex those acting muscles again, because the reviews for David Gordon Green's Joe have been nothing short of extraordinary.

The first trailer and poster have been released for the southern drama, which has Cage as an ex-con trying to stay out of trouble while befriending an abused teen played by Tye Sheridan. Not only does it appear to be Cage's most demanding role in a long time, but it's a continued step in the resurgence of Green as a filmmaker of note.

Joe hits theaters and VOD on April 11th.

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Amanda Seyfried Joins 'Flying Horse'; Nicolas Cage in Talks for 'Men with No Fear'

Gary Oldman has been having some difficulty mounting his first directorial effort since 1997's Nil By Mouth, the Eadweard Muybridge biopic Flying Horse. Last year it seemed like he was moving in the right direction with Benedict Cumberbatch and Ralph Fiennes coming aboard, but even with those stars, and the newly-added Amanda Seyfried, Oldman reveals to Absolutely Magazine that the lack of funding may prevent the film from happening....

Oldman: The script doesn’t fit their model. It’s called Flying Horse and it’s a real story. I have Ralph Fiennes in at the moment, Amanda Seyfried, Benedict Cumberbatch, and me. And it’s not enough because they have to make their movie for $15 million and they have got to have their model. You need someone who will actually be a risk taker. It’s set in San Francisco but you could save yourself $100k if you do three weeks in Romania and then you get a tax subsidy if you do a week in Ireland. It’s fucking eye-crossing!

Fiennes was set to play Muybridge, a pioneering photographer instrumental to the development of motion pictures, and presumably Seyfried would have been his young wife who had an affair with and had a child by Major Harry Larkyns (Cumberbatch). The discovery of the affair led Muybridge to murder Larkyns, causing quite the scandal and something of a circus trial.  Filming was set to begin later this year but it doesn't look like it will happen any time soon. [BleedingCool]

Meanwhile, Nicolas Cage is in talks to star in Men with No Fear, which would reunite him with his Tokarev director, Paco Cabezas. Produced by Bryan Singer and set to be sold at the European Film Market, the film "centers on Marty ‘The Mule,’ newly released from prison after being set up by his former boss Frank, a smalltime neighborhood crook. While Mule was locked up, Frank went big time and became a ruthless drug kingpin. But Frank also took Mule’s most precious item — his son, raising him like his own. But now Mule is back on the streets and ready for revenge." [Deadline]

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First Official Clip for 'Left Behind' Starring Nicolas Cage

When it comes to faith-based entertainment, more often than not, you get the bottom of the barrel as an audience in terms of acting, effects, script, you know...movies. The quality and money behind something like The Passion of the Christ is a complete rarity in the genre. Left Behind feel victim to this in it's original film adaptation with it's star being Kirk Cameron. For those unfamiliar with Left Behind let me speed you up. It was originally a book series that followed several characters through the rapture and seven years of tribulation before the return of Christ. The heavily religious tone of the books kept it's audience mostly to the...well, religious, which is really too bad because the book series, while told through the lines of biblical prophecy, is not at all what you would think as far as being a pulpit disguised as entertainment. The book series delivered a riveting story of war, espionage, and love spanning the globe. Admittedly I only read the first 9 books, I'm sure the preachiness would start to come in heavier after the return of Christ. Still, while reading the books I thought to myself constantly how I'd love to see these scenes playing out on screen...it really could be part Supernatural, part Argo, and part Saving Private Ryan.

As I previously said, the books were already adapted once, with Kirk Cameron in the lead. There was simply no way they would have been able to capture the scale required with a micro-budget. Then it was announced that there would be another, larger scale, more properly funded adaptation. Then Nicolas Cage was attached. Then the above poster was released. You can see where I'm going with this, the first clip had to blow you away. It doesn't. What we get is Nicolas Cage and Nicky Whelan playing Rayford Steele and Hattie Durham, respectively. Phoned in does not even begin to describe what Cage appears to be doing...and Nicolas Cage phoning in is saying something. The two literally seem to be reading out of a book while they talk about Hattie's mom leaving Rayford which they obviously chose to show both 1. That the movie is faith-based and 2. that Cage's Rayford is of the non-faith...ermmm...faith? I don't know, I'll still hope that one day this story gets a decent shot somewhere but unless a miracle happens I don't see that.

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First Trailer for David Gordon Green's 'Joe' Starring Nicolas Cage

After spending a few years appealing to the stoner crowd with films like Pineapple Express and The Sitter, David Gordon Green seems to be circling back around to the indie dramas that began his career. Last year he directed Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch in the quirky dramedy Prince Avalanche, which we hated but was well-received in some other circles. He also hit the festival circuit with Joe, a gritty new film that stars Nicolas Cage in a role we haven't seen from him in ages.

The first trailer for Joe has been released, and there's a soulful, Southern quality to it similar to Mud. Coincidentally, both films star Tye Sherdian, and here he plays a 15-year-old kid from an abusive home, only to become friends with Joe (Cage), an ex-con looking to make something of his life for once.

Joe has yet to gain a U.S. date but is expected to hit later this year.

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Kelsey Grammer Lands Nic Cage's Role in 'The Expendables 3'

He's Frasier Crane, and he is listening. It's been a few years since Kelsey Grammer ended his multiple Emmy-winning run as radio psychologist Frasier Crane, and in that time we've seen him make other attempts at the small screen that haven't really panned out. Fortunately, he's found better luck on the big screen, taking the villain role in Transformers: Age of Extinction, and now by joining Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables 3.

Part of Stallone's master plan for The Expendables 3 involved bringing in Nicolas Cage for a supporting role, but like many of the others Sly reached out to (Jackie Chan, Milla Jojovich), things didn't quite work out. So it will be Grammer taking his place as Bonaparte, a former mercenary who helps the Expendables on their mission, whatever that is.

That's two straight franchises for Grammer. One more and we can start calling him the new Vin Diesel.  So add Grammer's name right alongside fellow action icons Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Wesley Snipes, Mel Gibson, Jet Li, and Harrison Ford. Yeah, sounds about right. The Expendables 3 opens on August 15th 2014. [Deadline]

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Willem Dafoe Joins 'John Wick'; Michael Sheen In 'Madding Crowd'; Jason Patric Enters 'Hotel 33'

* Willem Dafoe will be both a friend and foe to Keanu Reeves in the hit man flick, John Wick. Reeves stars as the title character, a retired assassin who tracks down the men responsible for stealing his 1969 Mustang and killing his dog, with Dafoe as his former best friend and fellow contract killer who puts a bounty on his head. [Deadline]

* Filming is underway on Thomas Vinterberg's adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd, with  Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Juno Temple, and Tom Sturridge already on board. Rounding out the cast now is Michael Sheen in the role of William Boldwood, one of the three men courting the beautiful Bathsheba Everdene. David Nicholls (One Day, Starter for 10) adapted the screenplay.

* Back in May we learned that Nicolas Cage was set to star in writer/director Kellie Madison's horror, Hotel 33. That deal has since fallen through, and now Cage has been replaced by Jason Patric. Quite a step down, to be perfectly honest. He'll play the detective investigating the disappearance of a friend in the same hotel where 33 people disappeared back in 1953. [Variety]

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Milla Jojovich in talks to join 'The Expendables 3'

After The Expendables brought back a bunch of aging action heroes all in one place and became a huge hit (and career lifeline) for Sylvester Stallone, he's been on a crusade to try and up the ante with each film. The Expendables 2 brought in the big guns with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis expanding their roles, while adding other genre stalwarts Jean-Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris. For the third film, Stallone has reached out to other heavy-hitters like Wesley Snipes, Jackie Chan, and even Nicolas Cage, and now it appears he's landed all three plus a surprising new name.

According to Deadline, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer confirmed that Chan, Snipes, and Cage are in "advanced negotiations" to join the flick, which basically backs up news that has been floating around for months. What nobody had been expecting was that he threw Milla Jojovich's name into the mix, which would make her the most prominent female action star the franchise has had. Jojovich does make a lot of sense, as she's been the driving force behind the long-running Resident Evil franchise which is wrapping up next year. This would also seem to put the kibosh on any plans for her to join that "all-female Expendables" film that is currently in development.

It remains unclear who from the previous films will return, but you can probably expect to see Jason Statham, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, and Mickey Rourke. Patrick Hughes will direct The Expendables 3 when filming finally gets underway.

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Sure Shots: Adrien Brody; Sam Rockwell; Nicolas Cage

* Whenever Hollywood gets its shit together to make a movie about Hollywood it almost always ends in disaster. The latest attempt to get introspective is Cannes, which obviously will explore the ins and outs of the all-important festival. Adrien Brody is starring in the dramedy from writer/director Christopher Thompson, which follows a director presenting a film at Cannes while having marital difficulties with his wife. Ugh. Shooting will take place during Cannes, so there should be no problem snagging a few cameos. [Variety]

* Many great actors have explored the sweet science of boxing in some of the best sports biopics ever, and now Sam Rockwell hopes to add his name to that distinguished list. He'll rejoin his A Single Shot director, David M. Rosenthal, for a biopic on 1920s boxer Billy Miske. Miske was diagnosed with terminal kidney disease during his career but continued fighting to support his family. He won his final fight by knockout and died just two months later. [Screen Daily]

* And you thought Nicolas Cage was turning a corner in his career, didn't you? Not so fast, Kemosabe.  More crap is a comin'. He'll take the lead in Tokarev, a generic-sounding action flick about an ex-criminal tracking down the men who kidnapped his daughter. Zzzzzzzz. The film is written and directed by....well, nobody of note, but I guarantee you they aren't good. [Variety]

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