Nicolas Cage has been rehabilitating his reputation as a slumming A-lister taking paycheck gigs on VoD by starring in a combination of the most interesting and insane projects possible, which includes critically acclaimed drama Pig, bonkers supernatural thriller Prisoners of the Ghostland and animatronic amusement park slasher Willy’s Wonderland. However, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is poised to deliver the best of both worlds.
In the action-comedy, the Academy Award winner plays jobbing actor Nicolas Cage, who accepts a million dollars to appear at a billionaire fan’s birthday party, which involves acting out scenes from his past hits including Face/Off and Con Air. In an even more meta twist, it turns out that Pedro Pascal’s Javi is actually a cartel kingpin, forcing CIA agent Tiffany Haddish to recruit Cage in an effort to save the day, but not before his fictional wife and daughter are caught in the crossfire.
The first trailer was recently screened at CinemaCon, and it’s said to have gone down an absolute storm with those in attendance. The footage begins replaying snippets from Cage’s past roles, opening with the star contemplating retirement before being convinced by Neil Patrick Harris’ character to accept the million-dollar offer on the table.
Pascal’s Javi reveals he has a life-size wax statue of Cage, and the footage shows the two of them reenacting quotable exchanges from his back catalog, including Javi trying to master the art of delivering the word “a-hole” in the exact same style and cadence as his hero, before they end up pointing guns at each other in what’s presumably a moment from the third act. That sounds positively nuts, but the very bad news is that The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent isn’t coming to theaters until April 22nd, 2022.