Nicolas Cage returns to our screens this weekend in the action pic
Following on from the box office sensation ‘National Treasure 2′, Nicolas Cage returns to our screens this weekend in ‘Bangkok Dangerous’. Cage plays Joe – an anonymous/remorseless assassin determined to complete one final assignment in Thailand before retiring to a life of obscurity. From directors Oxide Pang and Danny Pang (The Eye), this action flick paints an explosive picture of the Bangkok underworld, illuminated with neon and saturated in violence.
To celebrate the release of the film (in Irish cinemas from Friday, September 5th) Movies.ie presents 10 fascinating Nicolas Cage factoids.
(1) Cage’s real name is Nicolas Coppola. He took his stage name from comic book character Luke Cage.
(2) He is the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola and cousin to Sofia Coppola and Jason Schwartzman.
(3) Cage got Johnny Depp his first acting job (in the 1984 horror ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ where he played a teenager who falls prey to dream-stalking demon Freddy Krueger).
(4) Cage (along with his cousin Sofia Coppola) is the third generation of Oscar winners in the Coppola family. His uncle, Francis Ford Coppola and his grandfather, Carmine Coppola, are the other two generations. They are the second family to do so, the first family is the Hustons – Angelica Huston, John Huston and Walter Huston.
(5) In 1982, he auditioned for the role of Joel in Risky Business but lost out to Tom Cruise.
(6) Tim Burton cast him in his doomed Superman project. Cage even did fittings of the costume.
(7) In 2001, Cage announced that he is dating Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of the late Elvis Presley. They later married.
(8) Went to the same high school as Angelina Jolie, Michael Klesic, Lenny Kravitz, David Schwimmer, Jonathan Silverman, Gina Gershon, Rhonda Fleming, Jackie Cooper, Rob Reiner, Antonio Sabato Jr., Pauly Shore, Michael Tolkin, Betty White, Corbin Bernsen, Elizabeth Daily, Albert Brooks and Crispin Glover.
(9) Cage had to eat a real cockroach for the film Vampire’s Kiss (1989), it reportedly took three takes. He once said about the experience, “Every muscle in my body didn’t want to do it, but I did it anyway.”
(10)Cage was offered the role of Green Goblin/Norman Osborn in Spider-Man (2002).
Press play to watch the trailer.
See Cage in Bangkok Dangerous – in Irish cinemas from Friday, September 5th.