Nicolas Cage is in a bit of rough patch. His turn in Joel Schumacher‘s Trespass has been met with laughter, the film itself disliked and virtually unseen, a near straight-to-VOD release. The film before Trespass, Drive Angry 3D, made less than $30 million worldwide on a $50 million budget while the recent The Sorcerer’s Apprentice stalled the seemingly unstoppable Jerry Bruckheimer’s producing career.
Now, German production outfit Bavariapool has its first English-language production, thriller Black Butterfly, with Cage starring alongside German actress Veronica Ferres. The budget of the film sits somewhere around $13 million. Perhaps, in this case, the lack of deep pockets will reign in Cage’s particular set of skills.
Cage will play a reclusive author who makes friends with a vagabond. Bad things happen, as they tend to do when one befriends a vagabond. Brian Goodman will direct. Goodman made his directorial debut with What Doesn’t Kill You, a thin crime drama starring Ethan Hawke and Mark Ruffalo. The film went nowhere, as it came out just before its production company, Yari Film Group, went under.
Nic Cage has had rough patches before that he’s broke free of (the strange early 2000s saw high points in Adaptation and Lord of War, while a early 90s full of easy studio fare saw Red Rock West and the very funny Honeymoon in Vegas), but this current streak is one for the books. How many Season of the Witch‘s can come out before every single person stops going to Nic Cage movies?
Shooting is set to begin in eastern Germany in early 2012 [THR].
Can Nicolas Cage’s career be revived?