Nicolas Cage has set a standard in Hollywood for odd characters in his decades-long career, but soon he might play his strangest one yet. That, of course, would be himself. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor is in talks for a movie called The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, in which he would play himself in a story that references his past work. The plot description is quite meta: “Cage, if deals close, would star as actor Nicolas Cage,†reports THR. “The character is desperate to get a role in a new Tarantino movie while also dealing with a strained relationship with his teenage daughter. He also occasionally talks to an egotistical 1990s version of himself who rides him for making too many crappy movies and for not being a star anymore.â€
Unbearable Weight Cage would also be burdened by massive debt that prompts him to attend the birthday party of a Mexican billionaire, and, get this, “Cage is informed by the CIA that the billionaire is actually a drug cartel kingpin who has kidnapped the daughter of a Mexican presidential nominee, and is recruited by the U.S. government to get intelligence.†But wait, there’s more! “The situation spirals even more dramatically when the Mexican brings over Cage’s daughter and his ex-wife for a reconciliation, and when their lives are on the line, Cage takes on the role of a lifetime.†So, it’s an international crime film as well as a meta-Hollywood tale, and since this is a movie starring and about Nic Cage, we would expect no less than two reasons to spiral existentially. The actor would co-produce the film, which is being written by Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten, with Gormican slated to direct for Lionsgate. The script got off the ground for development when the writers sent it to Cage with a note asking for him to join and promising it was meant to celebrate him and not make fun of him, and then he actually agreed. This all makes complete sense.