While the gravity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has pulled in a galaxy of Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated stars, Nicolas Cage isn’t eager to join them.
According to Variety, while he received the trade’s Legend & Groundbreaker Award at the Miami Film Festival on Sunday, Cage was asked about the superhero movie boom.
The lifelong comics fan, who played Ghost Rider on the big screen before the MCU existed, explained, “I’ve gotta be nice about Marvel movies, because I named myself after a Stan Lee character named Luke Cage.”
The actor, born Nicolas Coppola, added, “What am I going to do, put Marvel movies down? Stan Lee is my surrealistic father. He named me.”
But the Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent star later added, “I don’t need to be in the MCU, I’m Nic Cage.”
Unlike other actors, Cage doesn’t see the superhero genre as a problem for Hollywood. “I understand what the frustration is. I get it,” he said, adding, “I think there’s plenty of room for everybody. I’m seeing movies like [Oscar nominee] Tár. I’m seeing all kinds of artistic and independently driven movies. I think there’s plenty of room for everybody.”
Cage also talked a bit about recruiting Batman director Tim Burton for a Superman film in the ’90s that was infamously scuttled by Warner Bros. “It was more of a 1980s Superman with like, the samurai black long hair. I thought it was gonna be a really different, sort of emo Superman, but we never got there,” he expressed.
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