As of late, Nicolas Cage has been doing a lot of work in the fantasy department, with such films as The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Season of the Witch, and Drive Angry 3D. However, his upcoming 2011 films — Joel Schumacher‘s Trespass and Roger Donaldson‘s The Hungry Rabbit Jumps — seem poised to shift the actor in another direction: crime thrillers. And Cage‘s most-recently announced project, a serial killer drama co-starring John Cusack titled The Frozen Ground, certainly looks to continue that trend. [Deadline]
Oddly enough, Cage — notorious for his outlandish on-screen persona — will play the straight man in the film, “a principled and detailed Alaska state trooper.” Cusack, who will be seen in the upcoming thriller The Factory, is set portray the film’s serial killer, a character based off of real-life predator Robert Hansen. Hansen, currently in his 70s and still riding out his multiple-life sentence in prison, “abducted, tortured and raped over twenty four women” over a course of twelve years.
The film includes a third principal character — a teenage survivor of the serial killer, who will assist Cage in tracking down the vicious butcher. The film was written by Scott Walker; he’ll also be making his directorial debut on the project.
What do you think of Cage playing the straight man? Or Cusack as the villain?