Filmsane

You know this man I presume. Actor, producer and member of the distinguished Coppola family. Oh and he’s an Academy Award winner too. Yup. I’m talking about Nicolas Cage.
This week, the actor announced his plans to retire from acting in 3-4 years’ time to focus on directing.

“Directing is something I look forward to down the road,” Cage said. “Right now, I’m primarily a film performer and I’m gonna continue doing that for three or four more years and I’d like to focus more on directing.” The actor said for The Beast.

To be fair, he already dabbed in the field of directing before. Cage made his directorial debut with the 2002 crime drama Sonny. It starred James Franco, Harry Dean Stanton, Brenda Blethyn, Mena Suvari and even Cage made a cameo appearance. Although the movie was terribly received, Tommy Wiseau is a fan of the movie, and Franco’s performance in it gave Wiseau faith in Franco’s ability to portray him respectfully in The Disaster Artist.

The shift in Cage’s career comes after years of commercial and critical flops, B-movie productions and straight to DVD projects that have demoted his once lustrous A-list career in Hollywood. There is also an ongoing debate weather if he’s a really good actor or just some guy that had a lucky break to be born in one of the most celebrated families in showbiz and to win an Oscar in the process.

I personally think it’s a combo of the both factors, but I’m here to tell you my favorite Nic cage movies.

Enjoy.

Lord of War (2005)

Director: Andrew Niccol
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Ethan Hawke, Jared Leto…
Fun fact about the movie: According to Writer and Director Andrew Niccol, the filmmakers worked with actual gunrunners in the making of the film. The tanks lined up for sale were real, and belonged to a Czech arms dealer, who had to have them back to sell to another country. They used a real stockpile of over three thousand AK-47s, because it was cheaper than getting prop guns.

Face/Off (1997)

Director: John Woo
Stars: John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen…
Fun fact about the movie: Nicolas Cage doesn’t like heights. He said that shooting one action scene was “one of the most frightening days of my life.”

Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000)

Director: Dominic Sena
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi…
Fun fact about the movie: Christopher Eccleston described this as a “terrible film in which I give a terrible performance”, adding that, before Doctor Who (2005), people who recognized him, mostly shouted “‘You were in Gone in Sixty Seconds, mate! You were shit!’ And I have to laugh at that, because I was!”

National Treasure (2004)

Director: Jon Turteltaub
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha…
Fun fact about the movie: Abigail Chase claims her accent is from Saxony, Germany when Gates first meets her. Diane Kruger is from Germany, but from the state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), not Saxony.

Moonstruck (1987)

Director: Norman Jewison
Stars: Cher, Nicolas Cage, Olympia Dukakis…
Fun fact about the movie: Nicolas Cage’s screen test didn’t impress the studio, and they wanted to get someone else to play Ronny. But Cher insisted that Cage was the one to play that role, and threatened to quit unless he was hired. After a few days, the studio relented.

8MM (1999)

Director: Joel Schumacher
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini
Fun fact about the movie: Nicolas Cage’s Oscar award (for Leaving Las Vegas (1995)) makes a cameo in the film. Look for it, wrapped up in black string/laces on Eddie Poole’s desk when Cage breaks in to tap Poole’s phone.

Honeymoon in Vegas (1992)

Director: Andrew Bergman
Stars: James Caan, Nicolas Cage, Sarah Jessica Parker…
Fun fact about the movie: The character Chief Orman was inspired by Marlon Brando. Writer and Director Andrew Bergman worked with Brando on The Freshman (1990).

Racing with the Moon (1984)

Director: Richard Benjamin
Stars: Sean Penn, Elizabeth McGovern, Nicolas Cage…
Fun fact about the movie: Nicolas Cage played a a character, Nicky, with a similar first name to his own. Director Richard Benjamin refers to Cage as Nicky on his audio-commentary.

Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

Director: Mike Figgis
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Elisabeth Shue, Julian Sands…
Fun fact about the movie: Ben doesn’t eat a single thing during the entire film. This reinforces his dependence on alcohol as chronic alcoholics usually forget to eat or can’t force food down. During the restaurant scene he puts spaghetti on his fork but doesn’t eat it. And when Sera fixes him rice, he eats an ice cube instead.

Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Stars: Kathleen Turner, Nicolas Cage, Barry Miller…
Fun fact about the movie: Sofia Coppola (director Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter) plays Peggy Sue’s little sister. Sofia would later direct Kathleen Turner in The Virgin Suicides (1999).

Raising Arizona (1987)

Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, Trey Wilson…
Fun fact about the movie: Edgar Wright’s favorite film.

Wild at Heart (1990)

Director: David Lynch
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe
Fun fact about the movie: Nicolas Cage’s uncle, Francis Ford Coppola, directed The Godfather: Part II (1974), which featured Harry Dean Stanton. It also starred Diane Keaton, who directed an episode of Twin Peaks (1990).

It Could Happen to You (1994)

Director: Andrew Bergman
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Bridget Fonda, Rosie Perez…
Fun fact about the movie: At Charlie and Muriel’s divorce proceedings, Muriel has had a breast augmentation. They are Rosie Perez’s real breasts. She had to have them bound down for the first half of the movie, to appear smaller.

The Rock (1996)

Director: Michael Bay
Stars: Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris…
Fun fact about the movie: Michael Bay’s favorite movie of his own.

Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman…
Fun fact about the movie: Martin Scorsese said the reason he wanted Paul Schrader to write the script is because he felt Schrader was best at writing about “New York in the middle of the night”.