Cage and Carpenter Might Get ‘Scared Straight’
There are about 547 ways this thing could go horribly and embarrassingly wrong, but news that Nic Cage and John Carpenter might make a prison break film together warms my heart.
I can’t remember the last time Carpenter made a film I really liked and Cage has always been spotty, but there’s something about this that feels right to me.
The script, which has been banging around Hollywood for a couple of years, is about a young punk who is sent to prison as part of the Scared Straight program. When a riot breaks out, it’s up to lifer Cage to get the kid out.
This would’ve been great low budget movie in the early to mid-’80s with Kurt Russell and I think it could be great today. Keep it cheap, simple, gritty and stripped down, let Nic chew a little scenery, have Carpenter write the score, get a bunch of solid character actors to play the other convicts and it could be a fun genre picture.
Crap it up with a lot of backstory and subplots and pyrotechnics and it could also suck.
Source: THR
The chemistry could be there—it is hard to tell. Cage is exasperating because of some of the projects he chooses–surely not of the BBC Masterpiece Theatre variety, but he has also given great performances through the years–LEAVING LAS VEGAS, ADAPTATION for example, (not that there is a single person at LIC that doesn’t know this and beyond) and Carpenter of course is someone who onbalance is well more than a guilty pleasure, even if his best work is surely behind him.
One can never tell.
“…a young punk who is sent to prison as part of the Scared Straight program…”
Dunno what happened exactly, but a similar “scared straight” experiment totally backfired on me. Like a bad lab rat, I completely disproved the hypothesis.
Give us Kurt Russell as the corrupt warden or a wrongly-convicted lifer (hell, any old prison codger), and we got ourselves a movie.
“Give us Kurt Russell as the corrupt warden”
Yes!
Yeah, this could be fun although my interest level for it at this point is low. Isn’t this a TV series on Fox? Anyway, I’m crossing my fingers that Kurt Russell is on board. Hell, the entire cast of The Thing (those that are still with us) could be great in supporting roles.
I never really liked Nicholas Cage. Certain things about him annoy the hell out of me. But he’s turned in some excellent performances (Sam points out the wonderful Adaptation and Leaving Las Vegas above) and I think he has the potential to be more than what he’s shown us lately.
Hopefully this will be a return to old form for him.
I loved him in Raising Arizona and Moonstruck as well. For me he’s very hit and miss, but when he hits, he’s great.
Either way I would not expect too much from this one. I’m excited by it as a simple genre picture, the kind of thing you’d watch on DVD on a weekend with a few beers, but perhaps I’m getting too carried away lately with my idea of cinematic junk food.
That you’re being too forgiving, Craig, or expecting too much?
Too forgiving. I’m in the mood for a good old-fashioned genre action picture. Give me a set up, some fun actors and some guns and watch them get out of it.
If Carpenter would only cast Keith David and Rowdy Roddy Piper as the leaders of the rival prison gangs whose conflict stirs up the riot, this could very well be the greatest movie ever. Especially if there are sunglasses involved.
So, Mr. Carpenter, if you’re reading this, please OBEY my request.
Also, I think Cage’s performance in MATCHSTICK MEN gets too little credit. The movie’s no ADAPTATION, but it’s sort of a quintessential Cage performance, an eccentric role shoehorned into a fairly generic plot.
Anything that ensures Ghosts of Mars isn’t JC’s final film is fine by me.
Seriously, though: Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, Someone’s Watching Me!, Elvis, The Fog, Escape from New York and The Thing. What a run. And he still had Big Trouble in Little China and They Live in him.
Nic Cage teaming up with Herzog, Polanski and now Carpenter may show that he has pangs of guilt for his Wicker Man-Ghost Rider-Next-National Treasure 2 run (not counting his tiny cameo in Grindhouse, the best thing he had done since Lord of War). Or maybe these directors just need some kind of star to help get their projects off the ground.
I agree, Craig, this must be kept simple. And Kurt Russell as the warden would be completely awesome.
Cage’s performance in Matchstick Men is definitely better than the rest of the movie, which should have been made by somebody coming from a quirky indie-based background instead of Ridley Scott, who spends all his time on overbearing cinematography and production design.
Anyway, though, the mere news of a new John Carpenter movie is enough to make me happy.
I do not like Nic Cage, like at all, he freaks me out.
Jeff,
Agreed. There was a decent little movie buried in there somewhere.
Have you ever noticed that Scott sometimes hangs his actors out to dry, by suddenly cutting to closeup as they’re in the middle of expressing a big emotion? By chopping out the buildup, he makes them look like they’re chewing the scenery.
As for the topic at hand, I’d love to see Carpenter make a good movie — but I’ve been burned way too many times to allow myself much in the way of hope.
I hear what you’re saying Frank, but I’m like an abused spouse who keeps going back thinking maybe this time it will be different.