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Since making his acting debut in 1982's "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," Nicolas Cage has gone on to amass an astounding filmography that has never stopped evolving. He's admittedly made some baffling choices as an actor, starring in the infamously terrible "Deadfall" (which has a zero rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and the 2019 dud "Grand Isle," whose flaws have more to do with its storytelling than Cage's performance as a haunted war veteran. Really, we would be here all day if I were to list the scores of middling-to-awful straight-to-video flicks Cage has starred in, yet the actor never, ever phones it in and shows up to every role with an intensity that is tough to match.

Being one of those actors who shines brighter than ever when given layered, intriguing roles to work with, Cage has delivered several unforgettable performances worth rooting for. For starters, we have the lesser-known...

Nicolas Cage is one of America’s greatest movie stars, and certainly its most distinctive one. His singular genius will be the subject of a retrospective festival at Metrograph, the wonderful independent movie theater in New York City.

IndieWire reports that “Nicolas Uncaged” will present 35mm showings of 10 of Cage’s iconic films: “Adaptation,” “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” “Con Air,” “Moonstruck,” “National Treasure,” “Pig,” “Red Rock West,” “Vampire’s Kiss,” “The Wicker Man,” and “Wild at Heart.”

“Heaped with praise and panegyrics as one of the finest screen actors of his generation, pilloried and parodied as an anything-for-a-paycheck hambone with a weakness for weird wigs and prostheses, Nicolas Cage is a one-man sideshow, a mixture of Marlon Brando, Robert Mitchum, Lon Chaney, and a stick of TNT who takes back ‘serious thespian’ prestige whenever he wants to, dives into grindhouse material and Academy Award hopefuls with the same mad enthusiasm,...

Nicolas Cage’s status as a national treasure is being cemented by the Metrograph.

The New York City-based theater has announced a “Nicolas Uncaged” festival to honor the acclaimed star. The 10-film retrospective opens November 8 at Metrograph In Theater, and will feature 35mm showings of “Con Air,” “Moonstruck,” “The Wicker Man,” and “Wild at Heart.”

“Heaped with praise and panegyrics as one of the finest screen actors of his generation, pilloried and parodied as an anything-for-a-paycheck hambone with a weakness for weird wigs and prostheses, Nicolas Cage is a one-man sideshow, a mixture of Marlon Brando, Robert Mitchum, Lon Chaney, and a stick of TNT who takes back ‘serious thespian’ prestige whenever he wants to, dives into grindhouse material and Academy Award hopefuls with the same mad enthusiasm, and never seems to be having anything less than a total blast in front of the camera,” the Metrograph press statement reads.

Coming from a family of auteurs, Nicolas Cage had a lot of influence from showbiz growing up, as he spent most of his time binging movies. Considering he was best friends with Sean Penn’s late brother Chris Penn, the two, alongside Sheen, spent much of their time watching movies.

Nicolas Cage | Photo by Nicolas Genin, licensed under Cc By-sa 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

While this contributed to Cage’s love for the medium, one of these sessions served as a pivotal moment that shaped the Vampire’s Kiss star’s acting career, thanks to Sheen’s father. Reflecting on Martin Sheen’s words, Cage deemed it the best professional advice of his life.

Martin Sheen’s Words Sticked with Nicolas Cage Apocalypse Now (1979) | Credit: Paramount Pictures

Being a notable actor himself, who has been a recipient of many accolades, Martin Sheen gave an important piece of advice to a young Cage,...

Nicolas Cage is blowing critics away with Longlegs, one of the most terrifying horror movies to hit theaters in recent memory. The film is part of the critical comeback the actor has made over the past few years. In addition, it makes it clear that he was always meant to do one thing.

Nicolas Cage achieves his destiny as an actor in ‘Longlegs’

Cage has a cult following, partly because he takes on so many different roles. He’s played romantic leads, action heroes, family men, a superhero or two, a treasure hunter, and a businessman convinced he’s a vampire. The other reason numerous people love him is his ability to go so over the top that he’s on a different planet from other actors.

In Longlegs, Cage plays Dave Cobble, a bizarre serial killer with the moniker “Longlegs.” Between the character’s high-pitched voice, ghostly white features,...

Having a decades-long career in the film industry, Nicolas Cage has delivered unforgettable performances in films such as the National Treasure series and his Oscar-winning role in Leaving Las Vegas, as well as fan favorites like Vampire’s Kiss, Face/Off, and Ghost Rider.

Nicolas Cage | Credit: Image by Nicolas Genin, licensed under Cc By-sa 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Despite his extensive filmography, the actor recently emphasized the significance of Pig, as a drama that stands above the rest. Cage, who is returning to the silver screen with Longlegs, recently revealed the 2021 film as the film he most wants his fans to experience, describing it as a “folk song” to him among his 120 roles.

Nicolas Cage Declares Pig His Most Essential Film

In a recent interview with The New Yorker, Hollywood star Nicolas Cage was asked for a recommendation on which film would be the best starting point for someone new to his work,...

Nicolas Cage is a performer who routinely defies logic and expectations. A true national treasure of cinema (no pun intended), Cage has never been afraid to cross genre lines and take big swings with the characters he embodies. Such is the case in the new film Longlegs by Osgood Perkins. In the movie, Cage plays the titular Longlegs, an elusive and terrifying serial killer. While previously able to stay off the FBI’s radar, everything changes when a young recruit named Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) gets assigned to the case.

Bloody Disgusting’s own Meagan Navarro wrote in her Longlegs review that Cage delivers his “most unsettling performance yet.” With a career as prolific and varied as Cage’s, that statement should not be taken lightly. Ahead of the film’s release in theaters everywhere on July 12th, let’s take a look at some of Cage’s other unsettling,...

If you’ve never seen a Nicolas Cage film — and, let’s face it, there are a lot of them to choose from — which should you see?

Cage was asked this question during a sit-down with The New Yorker. The actor has appeared in nearly 120 films since his breakout starring role in 1983’s Valley Girl and will be next seen in a rare supporting role in the horror movie Longlegs. Along the way, he won an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas and racked up several fan-favorite performances in films such as 1987’s Moonstruck, 1988’s Vampire’s Kiss, 1995’s Face/Off and 2002’s Adaptation.

Yet, Cage didn’t pick any of those.

Instead, he chose Michael Sarnoski’s 2021 drama Pig, in which Cage plays a despondent loner and former acclaimed chef on the hunt for thieves who stole his beloved truffle pig. The film earned some of Cage’s best reviews in his career,...

Austin, TX – One thing that SXSW attracts are movie stars. With the big premieres headquartered at the famous art deco Paramount Theatre in Austin, audiences were treated to appearances by the legendary Susan Sarandon (“Gutter”), a reunited Cheech & Chong, and for the creme de la creme we were in the “Cage.” The great Nicolas Cage appeared on behalf of “Arcadian.”

Dammit Janet …

Susan Sarandon @SXSW for ‘Gutter’

Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Susan Sarandon is an Oscar Winning (“Dead Man Walking”) and ultimate cult actress (the legendary Janet in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”). She made her inauspicious debut in the (naturally) cult hippie film “Joe” and has had memorable roles in “Pretty Baby,” “Atlantic City,” “The Hunger,” “Bull Durham,” “Thelma and Louise,” “Lorenzo’s Oil” “Robot & Frank” and most recently as the voice of Dr. Wong in “Rick and Morty.” She represented her latest star turn...

There was this rumor just recently that Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, and Warner Bros. joined hands for another possibility of a vampire movie. But then, as always, it will not be a regular vampire movie, as for this project, the vampires will fight against the KKK or the other way around, with the KKK as the vampires, hunting Colored people.

In simple words, the Ku Klux Klan, also known as the KKK, is a white supremacist hate group that has inscribed myriad violent and murderous episodes of social disorder in its blood-stained history. More than that, the KKK is an odious and maleficent organization that neither upholds nor practices membership associated in any respect.

Michael B. Jordan in Black Panther

Michael B. Jordan’s Vampire Movie Could Spark Outrage With Plot Involving The KKK

Hollywood leads Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan seem to have set their eyes on another vampire film,...

In an interview series with Vanity Fair, Nicolas Cage revisited clips from his past films. One of the clips features his role as Ronny in "Moonstruck," a working-class Italian American with a firey temper and passion for opera. During one of his incensed monologues, you can see a missing tooth. Cage told Vanity Fair that he had pulled out his baby teeth — without anesthesia — for a previous film, "Birdy," but at that point, "they hadn't grown in yet, so when I did 'Moonstruck,' you still see a gaping hole." A character that is both rough and tender, Cage's missing tooth (along with Johnny's wooden hand) was the perfect touch for his idiosyncratic role in "Moonstruck."

For "Birdy," Nicolas Cage wanted to use the physical anguish of removing his teeth to relate to what his character went through in the war. His character Al returns after sustaining injuries from an exploding bomb,...

Even by Nicolas Cage’s standards, Dream Scenario is a strange movie — but mostly in that there is nothing at all unusual about the character he plays. A mediocre biologist whose research is routinely stolen by other scientists, Paul Matthews becomes famous overnight when he starts appearing in other people’s dreams. How and why is never explained, but Kristoffer Borgli’s surreal satire has a lot to say about today’s social media-driven society. Speaking from his home in Las Vegas (“The more romantic way of saying it is: I’m in the Mojave Desert”), the actor explains how he saw himself in this most unlikely premise.

Deadline: So, we’re talking about Dream Scenario. How did that project come to you?

Nicolas Cage: What happened was, I had been communicating via email with Ari Aster, and he had heard that I’d wanted to work with him...

Brad Silberling's 1998 romance "City of Angels," a remake of Wim Wenders' indispensable 1987 film "Wings of Desire," stars Nicolas Cage as an immortal angel named Seth who gently breezes around Los Angeles, unseen by the people who live there. He appears to people only when they die, accompanying them to the afterworld. Observing humans as if they are an ineffable alien species, Seth becomes particularly enamored of an ambitious and compassionate young doctor named Maggie Rice. Seth finds that he might be experiencing love for the first time, and becomes visible to Dr. Rice, courting her and asking her deep questions about what it means to be human. Seth eventually chooses to transform into a human, sacrificing his immortality in order to be with his beloved. 

What both Wenders and Silberling communicate with aplomb is how inhuman angels are. They live among humans but only interact when the humans die.

Nicolas Cage did not know writer-director Kristoffer Borgli from Adam when he opened the first page of Dream Scenario. A Norwegian filmmaker with only one other feature under his belt—2022’s Sick of Myself, which also is in Norwegian—Borgli is an exceedingly new voice in cinema, but one Cage was keyed into recognizing as promising because the screenplay had been sent by Ari Aster. As it turns out, the director behind Hereditary and Midsommar was producing this mysterious new dark comedy called Dream Scenario, and he thought Cage would respond to a story about a mild mannered college professor who one day discovers everyone in the world is dreaming about him.

Cage couldn’t put it down. Despite the project being an intensely surrealist comedy wherein our hero, Paul Matthews, learns his daughters, his students, and even folks on the other side of the Atlantic are dreaming of him—be it as a goof,...

From internet memes to a slew of movies, this is the Age of Cage, but Nicolas Cage himself revealed that as he approaches his 60th birthday he is taking stock. He told a sold-out audience at the Red Sea Film Festival that he was winding down his film career after 45 years and over 100 films: “I want to do television; maybe Broadway.” His decision – inspired in part by his son showing him “Breaking Bad” — won’t be final, as he has several film projects in the pipeline, including “Sympathy for the Devil,” co-starring festival jury member Joel Kinnaman and a sequel to 2005’s “Lord of War” — “My character’s son grows up and becomes a rival. It’s very Arthurian,” he said.

The Academy Award winning actor hyped by the “good energy” in the room talked through the four decades of his career and every film mentioned was greeted by whoops...

Nicolas Cage doesn’t really care if you know he’s related to Francis Ford Coppola.

The actor, best known for his lively performances in flicks such as Con Air and Face/Off, famously changed his name from Nicolas Coppola to Nicolas Cage at the start of his career. He told a boisterous audience this afternoon at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that he made the switch for two reasons.

The first appeared to be what Cage described as some early career on-set bullying.

“I did a little movie called Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” Cage said. “When I was on set, some of the other actors couldn’t believe I had talent because I was Coppola’s nephew. They would quote lines from Apocalypse Now and change lines to ‘I love the smell of Nicholas in the mornings instead of napalm in the morning.’”

Cage continued...

Some of us best remember Nicolas Cage in dramatic turns like Leaving Las Vegas and Adaptation. For others, it’s his eccentric behaviors like buying dinosaur skulls or remembering his time in the womb. And then there’s the group that sees Nicolas Cage and thinks nothing but the seemingly endless memes. And yes, Cage is well aware of his fame within the meme kingdom. You don’t say!

Nicolas Cage acknowledged his place in various memes by telling The Guardian, “I might have been the first actor who went through a kind of meme-ification…One person had cherrypicked from all these different movies where I was having meltdowns, but without any regard for how the character got to that place. I was frustrated because I didn’t know what people were taking from the movies other than that.” Here, the actor is referring to the “Nic Cage Losing His Shit” video,...

Nicolas Cage is living out his “Dream Scenario.”

The star of the upcoming A24 film revealed to The Guardian that he asks his subconscious for acting tips from his dreams. “If I’m stressed about how to play a scene, I’ll ask for a gift from my dreams,” Cage said. “Sometimes I’m so nervous about not having any hook on a scene that I’ll go to bed and dream about it and then I’ll get some residual feeling that I can apply to the performance.”

Cage has also had “beautifully weird” premonitions from his dreams, including a “wonderfully bizarre” experience where he dreamt of a two-headed eagle, and then was presented with the opportunity to purchase a two-headed snake the following day.

As for his acting career, Cage said he was blessed with five scripts over his decades-long career that did not require a single word to be changed,...

Clockwise from top left: Basket Case (Screenshot: Arrow Video/YouTube), Hellraiser (Screenshot: Arrow Video/YouTube), The Thing (Screenshot: Universal Pictures/YouTube), The Shining (Screenshot: Warner Bros./YouTube)Graphic: AVClub

The 1930s and 1940s are frequently recognized as the golden age of horror. And while Universal Studios deserves much credit for...

Clockwise from top left: Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Sony), Dracula (Universal), Only Lovers Left Alive (Sony), The Hunger (MGM/UA), Nosferatu The Vampyre (Shout Factory), Nosferatu (Kino Lorber) Graphic: AVClub

The vampire is cinema’s favorite monster. Ever since Nosferatu more than a century ago, bloodsuckers of every conceivable persuasion...

A24 after a raucous Midnight Madness premiere of Dicks the Musical brought the funny again tonight with the world premiere of Kristopher Borgli’s Dream Scenario, another ode and self satire of Oscar winner Nicolas Cage if there ever was one.

Cage said onstage tonight that Dream Scenario was one of a few projects in his career, that after reading it and seeing it “perfect on the page,” he had to play it; the other titles being Raising Arizona, Vampire’s Kiss, and Leaving Las Vegas. The pic follows Paul Matthews, a humdrum professor, who starts appearing in other people’s dreams, both sexually and brutally. Matthews becomes something of a social media sensation, err meme, and that was something that Cage could relate to.

Nicolas Cage on Memeification and what drew him to ‘Dream Scenario’ #TIFF23 pic.twitter.com/cIGqgeygeh

— Deadline Hollywood (@Deadline) September 9, 2023

“Well, in the name of Thespis,...

Following the success of Lourdes Viray’s award-winning short film Allure to Darkness (a soon-to-be feature anthology!) a Indiegogo crowdfunder campaign has been launched to create the 10-15 minute prequel I’M Everywhere.

Synopsis:

A narcissistic vampire named Victor will do or destroy anything to become famous and live up to his guardian Thanas’s ancient expectations of continuing the vampire legacy, going on a rampage to ensure no one will stand in his way of being on screen.

I’M Everywhere is a diverse and female-lead production looking for more backers for their exciting new dark-fantasy vampire film, the prequel to executive producer Lourdes Viray’s short film “Allure to Darkness,” directed by comic book artist Chai Simone, starring Landon Munoz returning for his role as ‘Victor,’ and executive produced by “Christmas Slasher’s” Destiny Soria, Fran Padunan, Brylle Gaviola. The film goes into production early October 2023 with an...

Full disclosure: This essay is being written by an avowed Bender (Aka Judd Nelson’s character in “The Breakfast Club”) apologist. And yes, nearly four decades since the release of the classic John Hughes teen dramedy, I’m well-aware of how problematic that is by our contemporary standards. While (sigh) the fingerless gloves, shredded denim vest, and studs made Bender the epitome of swoon-worthy bad boy chic, it took close to a decade for my still-forming teenage brain to realize that no, that is not, in fact, the ideal form of sensitive masculinity….because Bender is kind of a creep.

But this just goes to show how deeply the ’80s-era sexist, problematic dreamboat bad boy character has permeated culture. It’s the patriarchy of romance, by way of Reagan era sensibilities still relevant fifty years later. Broken boys will be broken boys in need of healing; but why has it...

The Vampire’s Kiss episode of Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie? was Written by Ric Solomon, Narrated by Travis Hopson, Edited by Jaime Vasquez, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Nicolas Cage has brought us some truly unhinged performances. From Castor Troy in Face/Off, to his supporting role as Eddie in Deadfall, and even Edward Malus, a woman-punching policeman in the 2006 remake of The Wicker Man. There is no stopping his extreme method acting. But where did it all come from? In 1989, Nicolas’ seedling was born in the horror comedy Vampire’s Kiss (get it Here). Back in the 80’s, some would say that his performance was too chaotic and horrendous. If you were to ask a millennial’s opinion today, they would tell you it’s one of the greatest films ever made. This film might have begun Cage’s method acting, but...

Montreal event runs July 20-August 9.

Nicolas Cage will receive the 27th Fantasia International Film Festival’s Cheval Noir Career Achievement Award while the Montreal event (July 20-August 9) will close with Quebcois collective Rkss’s We Are Zombies.

The closing film is based on the French comic book series Les Zombies Qui Ont Mangé Le Monde (The Zombies That Ate The World) and takes place in a world where zombies are referred to as “living impaired” and roam among ordinary people.

Megan Peta Hill (Riverdale), Alexandre Nachi (1991) and Derek Johns (The Boys) star in the feature from Rkss comprising François Simard,...

With a long and successful career spanning genres, Mia Farrow may not be considered a horror icon, but she’s certainly deserving of the title in terms of quality over quantity. The two genre efforts in which she starred are exemplary horror movies of their respective eras; while Rosemary’s Baby has been widely lauded since its release in 1968 (Roman Polanski’s personal life controversies notwithstanding), The Haunting of Julia – known internationally as Full Circle – is a hidden gem ripe for rediscovery.

Based on Peter Straub’s 1975 novel Julia, the 1977 British film is directed by Richard Loncraine and written by Dave Humphries (Quadrophenia), with Xtro filmmaker Harry Bromley Davenport receiving a “based on an adaptation by” credit. Although ostensibly a haunted house tale, its ambiguity also allows it to be viewed as a dramatic character study. Scream Factory shines a well-needed light on the atmospheric chiller with a new 4K Uhd + Blu-ray edition.

Nicolas Cage will not be eating cockroaches on camera ever again. The Oscar winner recently told Yahoo Entertainment that eating two cockroaches on camera during the making of his 1988 comedy “Vampire’s Kiss” remains a career regret. “I’ll never do that again,” Cage said. “I’m sorry I did it at all.”

“Vampire’s Kiss” stars Cage as a literary critic who becomes convinced he is a vampire. The film’s script originally called for the actor to swallow a raw egg, but Cage insisted it be a cockroach instead. As he said on the film’s DVD commentary track: “I saw it as a business decision because when people see the cockroach go in my mouth…[they] really react.”

In Cage’s new film, “Renfield,” his co-star Nicholas Hoult is the one eating cockroaches. Although in this case, the cockroaches weren’t real.

“The cockroaches I got to eat in this were caramel,...

Stars: Nicholas Hoult, Nicolas Cage, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Brandon Scott Jones, Adrian Martinez, Camille Chen, Bess Rous | Written by Ryan Ridley, Robert Kirkman | Directed by Chris McKay

Nicolas Cage has been in just about every kind of film you can think of, and he’s played just about every kind of character you can think of. One of his best, most famous, and over-the-top parts is in 1988s Vampire’s Kiss, where Nic Cage plays a publishing executive convinced he’s turning into a bloodsucking vampire. Now, more than 30 years later, not only is Nic Cage playing a vampire, he’s playing the lord of vampires, the prince of darkness, Count Dracula. It’s a role Cage seemed destined to play, after all, his uncle Francis Ford Coppola directed the 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Now Nic Cage gets to shine as that title character, and it’s a performance worthy of a better film.

There are countless reasons why “Vampire’s Kiss” is a memorable entry in Nicolas Cage’s filmography. For one, Robert Bierman’s 1988 horror satire is the film that saw Cage give one of the most iconic monologues of his career when he famously recited the entire alphabet in a fit of rage. It’s also a reminder that there was a time when a story about publishing executives looking for a misplaced piece of paperwork (with a side plot about vampires) could be a viable movie. And, of course, it’s the film where Cage ate a real cockroach on screen.

As Cage’s well-deserved reputation as an actor who gives everything to each role has grown over the years, so has the mystique around the “Vampire’s Kiss” cockroach scene. But the star isn’t nearly as proud of the gag as you might think.

Speaking to Yahoo Entertainment to promote their new vampire comedy “Renfield,...

The acting life isn’t always glamorous. Sometimes, you have to sacrifice for the part. Submitted for your approval is one Nicolas Cage, who has revealed a major regret captured on film while out promoting his current horror comedy, Renfield, which features Cage as Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as the title servant, R.M. Renfield.

Hoult’s character in Renfield is an insect-eater. That’s something familiar to Cage, who ate a cockroach in his 1988 film, Vampire’s Kiss.

“I’ll never do that again,” Cage related to Yahoo Entertainment. “I’m sorry I did it at all.”

In Vampire’s Kiss, the Cage character believes himself to have been transformed into a vampire. So he gets a jump on the experience by walking around New York with fake fangs and eating roaches. The insect-eating part was a bit of improvisation, transformed from a planned swallow of a raw egg.

“I saw it as a business decision,...

Nicolas Cage’s turn as Count Dracula in Renfield, flying into theaters April 14 from Universal, isn’t the first time the actor has sunk his teeth into exploring the undead.

Thirty-four years ago, he starred in the indie flick Vampire’s Kiss as Peter Loew, a New York literary agent convinced that his lover Rachel (Jennifer Beals) has transformed him into a vampire. With a script from Joseph Minion (After Hours), director Robert Bierman’s feature initially had Dennis Quaid attached as the lead until he dropped out to shoot Innerspace. The film’s team remembers Cage calling repeatedly to pitch himself.

“We just didn’t see Nicolas in the part,” producer Barbara Zitwer admits to THR. Ultimately, Cage landed the gig and continued to surprise with his acting choices, including his insistence that Peter eat a live cockroach instead of a raw egg yolk as scripted. “I had a complete breakdown,...

Lists are a time-honored tradition in the world of cinema. Best 100 this, Top 10 that. As such, every now and then, actors are asked to name their favorite performances. This week, the prolific Nicolas Cage, who has more than 200 movies to his credit, was tasked with just that.

While appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to promote Renfield, the host asked Nicolas Cage for his top five, well, Nicolas Cage movies. It didn’t take long for Cage to rattle off his picks. And now, in no particular order: Pig (2021), Mandy (2018), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), and Joe (2013).

As you can see, for the most part, Nicolas Cage picked movies from the more recent phase of his career, with three coming from the last decade. Colbert, meanwhile, cited 1997’s Face/Off as a personal favorite, prompting Cage to declare, “Oh, I like that one a lot!

There never has been a movie star quite like Nicolas Cage. While obviously handsome and gifted with backlogs of charisma, beneath the surface there lies an unmistakable hunger, a sense of searching, and what some might even call a mania to take a role to its fullest extreme. Even when Cage is taking the “paycheck” parts, be it in glossy ‘90s Hollywood star vehicles or some of his lesser 2010s straight-to-digital efforts, the actor’s tangible desire to push boundaries and experiment is nothing short of riveting.

In a Reddit Ama, Cage once said the following about his craft: “I think many of the choices I’ve made have been inspired by film stars from the silent era, as well as cultural expression of performance like Kabuki and some of the Golden Age actors like [James] Cagney, so I don’t know how to say I’ve done something new because...

It’s a loaded question to ask a movie buff their favorite Nic Flicks. But when Stephen Colbert finally met Nicolas Cage for the first time on Thursday night’s episode of The Late Show, the host wasted no time in asking the man himself about his Top Five Nic Cage films. (The answer might shock you.)

“I’m gonna start with Pig — that’s my favorite movie I’ve ever made,” Cage responded, barely taking a pause to think. “I love Mandy, that Panos Cosmatos directed. I love Bringing Out the Dead, that Martin Scorsese directed. And I loved Bad Lieutenant [Port of Call New Orleans], Werner Herzog. I loved a movie called Joe that David Gordon Green directed.”

Maybe it’s just a matter of his memory, but Cage’s list definitely skews more towards his later career; Bringing Out the Dead, the oldest film on his list by a decade, only came out in 1999. Seriously,...

Plot: Dracula’s long-suffering familiar Renfield, played by Nicholas Hoult, has finally started to acknowledge the toxic relationship that he has been in for over a hundred years. One day he meets Traffic Officer Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina), who inspires him to finally stand up to the lord of the vampires, Dracula (Nicolas Cage).

Review: Renfield is director Chris McKay’s (The Tomorrow War) blatant love letter to Dracula, with it even going so far as to recreate parts of the Universal Monsters black and white classic. It’s pretty amusing seeing Cage dressed up like Bela Lugosi in the iconic 1931 black and white horror film, with Hoult channeling Dwight Frye.

The film is a black comedy but with a surprisingly strong message about abusive relationships. Hoult plays Renfield as the victim of the ultimate narcissist, Dracula. Sure, you have your classic Dracula lines like “Renfield, come to your dark lord...

“Hurt but not defeated.” That’s the direction filmmaker Martha Coolidge gave to her star Nicolas Cage as they shot the pivotal breakup scene in the ’80s classic “Valley Girl.” In a filmed conversation from 2003 between the two for the film’s twentieth anniversary, Cage told Coolidge that he has “used that direction ever since” in all of his work.

As the iconic ’80s spin on “Romeo and Juliet” celebrates its 40th anniversary on April 29, and Cage returns to the big screen with his latest film “Renfield” — in which he plays the centuries old Prince of Darkness himself, Count Dracula, recovering from the latest attempt on his life with his familiar Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) in New Orleans — it’s clear that the impact of her words still resonate in the performances of the idiosyncratic actor.

He was just 17 years old when he auditioned for the role that would change his life.

Nicolas Cage has never been better than he is in the pitch-black horror-comedy Vampire’s Kiss (1988), playing the role of a Manhattan yuppie convinced he’s been turned into an immortal bloodsucker. Cage acts in the film with feral sincerity, burrowing deep enough into the madness to find some childlike desire to be seen and loved. He also found the most unthinkable ways of delivering straightforward lines. “Am I getting through to you, Alva?”; “I never misfiled anything! Not once. Not one time!”. They’re inconsequential on paper, but by the sheer, weird force of how he said them, they’ve been immortalised in meme form.

Cage was born to play a vampire. Renfield, then, feels like the long-withheld fulfilment of a promise – the actor finally gets to play the biggest vampire of them all, Dracula. His performance is faultless. There’s an elegance in the Old World elongation of his...

It may have taken Nic Cage over 40 years to play Dracula in "Renfield," but he previously donned fangs for one of his most out-there performances in "Vampire's Kiss."

It's kind of surprising that it's taken this long for Nicolas Cage to play Count Dracula. If any actor was born to play the most famous vampire on the planet then surely it was our generation's most unpredictable screen legend. Now he's getting his chance in the comedy "Renfield," where he stars alongside Nicholas Hoult, who plays Dracula's beleaguered goon in the midst of an identity crisis. Cage has always expressed interest in vampire lore. He produced the 2000 film "Shadow of the Vampire," a fictionalized version of the making of "Nosferatu" that imagines what would have happened if an actual vampire had been among the cast. Mostly, however, his highly specific strain of acting has been saved for playing mere mortals. There...

Isn’t it amazing to have Nicolas Cage back in cinemas?! There is truly is no one like the mercurial, surreal performer but of course we don’t mean he has been completely gone from our screens: it’s just a lot of his output in the last decade or so has seen him predominantly confined to the smaller ones. Still, in recent years, he has graced us with his presence in ways only The Cage can with some of his most outlandish work in Mandy, Willy’s Wonderland, Prisoners of the Ghostland, and Color Out of Space, each showcasing the actor’s penchant for the extreme, the expressionistic and the fascinating.

He went full meta last year with The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, a brilliant satire film that poked fun at his long filmography and his unique persona, one that showed an often-forgotten funny side that helped him in his early career.

With “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” exceeding all expectations over Easter weekend, it’s likely to be the #1 movie this weekend and maybe one or two more after that. Undaunted, four studios studios are releasing movies that will try to bring in business despite the overwhelming success and popularity of Universal’s animated movie.

In fact, Universal will be making a play for the top two spots this weekend with its latest horror-comedy “Renfield,” which comes from “The Walking Dead” creator Robert Kirkman‘s Skybound Entertainment with Chris McKay (“The Lego Batman Movie”) at the helm. It stars Nicholas Hoult (“The Favourite”) as the title character, henchman to the legendary vampire Count Dracula, as played by Nicolas Cage. Akwafina, Ben Schwartz and Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo all have key roles, as well.

See Box office: ‘Scream VI’ crosses $100 million on its way to a franchise best

Although Hoult has been...

This starry vampire caper borrows from the best bits of Hollywood monster movies and features some truly resplendent gore, but its tone and its morals are a bit off

The 1988 movie Vampire’s Kiss, about a lonely lothario with delusions of vampirism, may have flopped at the box office, but it did help establish Nicolas Cage’s idiosyncratic performance style. Perhaps inevitably, he has now brought his eye-popping instincts and shouty charisma to the role of Count Dracula – with most pleasing results.

Cage’s Dracula doesn’t have top billing here, however; that goes to his longtime servant, played as a meek-but-mighty Englishman by Nicholas Hoult. In this modern-day telling, Renfield’s bug-eating is the source of his super-strength, not a mark of madness, and he wants out of what he sees as an abusive relationship with his over-demanding boss. But his breaking free is complicated by a blossoming romance with...

There have been so many variations and film versions of Bram Stoker’s classic Dracula, from 1926’s Nosferatu to Tod Browning’s 1931 Dracula to Francis Coppola’s well-regarded take with Gary Oldman to even comedic satires like Love at First Bite with George Hamilton taking on the role. Now in Universal’s latest effort to rescue its horror classics and make them new again, we have the perfectly cast Nicolas Cage as the Prince of Darkness. Even he has done an offshoot before, in 1988’s Vampire’s Kiss. However this time around the film is not centered on Dracula himself, but rather his beleaguered servant, henchman, whatever you choose to call him, Renfield, and it is another Nicholas, as in Hoult, who has the title role this time in Renfield. Cage’s part, though meaty, is actually supporting as the emphasis turns to the long-suffering assistant who was tasked with bringing...

It seemed great on paper. Nicolas Cage as Dracula? It’s a role he was born to play; it’s a wonder it hasn’t happened before now (sorry, Vampire’s Kiss doesn’t count).

Renfield, Dracula’s long-suffering servant — or in vampire parlance, “familiar” — plagued by co-dependency issues and seeking help in a support group? Sounds hilarious. An original story by Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead? I’m there.

So why does Renfield downplay those promising aspects and turn out to be such a bloody mess?

The film, stemming from Universal’s understandable continuing attempts to capitalize on its classic monsters IP, certainly starts out promisingly. Renfield, played by Nicholas Hoult, provides background information about his relationship with the vampire in his life, illustrating his narration with nothing less than scenes from the 1931 classic Tod Browning film Dracula. Cage and Hoult are digitally inserted into the footage, replacing...

Nicolas Cage in Renfield Photo: Universal Pictures If they can make an entire series about Batman’s butler, they can for sure find room for a movie about Dracula’s loyal servant, Renfield. Nicholas Hoult stars as the Count’s beleaguered body man in Renfield, a small-in-scope but fundamentally entertaining horror-comedy.

In one of the many jacked-up, bodies-leaping-and-flying, vampire-meets-action-film sequences that punctuate “Renfield,” Dracula (Nicolas Cage), jutting into the movie well before we expect him to, does all the throat-ripping damage he can in a montage that culminates in drapes being thrown open, the sunlight flooding in, and the vampire, in his red bathrobe, bursting into flame. It looks like the climax of many a vampire film, and it leaves Dracula a charred husk. But has he been killed? No way! As Renfield (Nicholas Hoult), Dracula’s servant and disciple through the ages, explains to us in voice-over, when something like this happens it takes a great deal of work to return Dracula to his previous state. Renfield must gather up many new victims for his master to feed upon. But with enough blood and enough time, Dracula can claw his way back to his old robust undead form.

A little later,...

Clockwise from upper left: Vampire’s Kiss (Hemdale Film Corp.), The Wicker Man (Screenshot: Warner Bros./YouTube), Moonstruck (MGM), Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans (First Look Media), The Weather Man (Paramount Pictures) Graphic: AVClub Lots of people love Nicolas Cage, but for very different reasons. To some cinephiles, he...

In a career full of characters that range from quirky to downright unhinged, "Moonstruck" is one of Nicolas Cage's tenderest roles. Cage's performance as the impassioned baker Ronny Cammareri channels the actor's eccentricities into charm. The film was released in 1987 (with a wide release in January 1988) during a couple of months after his Coen brothers hit "Raising Arizona," gaining critical acclaim and solidifying Cage as one of the most interesting personalities for a romantic lead. However, the actor had to deal with people re-enacting a popular, particularly physical scene.

Cage would become even more famous the next decade when he won an Academy Award for "Leaving Las Vegas" and starred in a string of action films, but his momentum upward started in the late eighties. "Moonstruck" is probably more remembered for Cher's Oscar-winning performance, but the odd chemistry between the two stars provides the romantic comedy a comfortingly sweet bent.

The April additions to Pluto TV’s programming library are split between nature programs and horror flicks.

The streamer will debut the PBS Nature channel later this month, taking viewers on a global voyage and highlighting eco-causes, such as Earth Day. Docs including “Building Green” and “Earth in 1000 Years.”

Also, since April is halfway to Halloween, Pluto is doing everything it can to scare the pants off viewers early. The new channel “April Ghouls” has an array of terror, including “Scream 1-3.” The franchise’s first film, “Scream” stars Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Drew Barrymore, and David Arquette.

The franchise includes six films; the first four were directed by Wes Craven. The saga begins with murderers known as Ghostface, who stalk and kill their victims.

Relive the original “Scream” trailer:

Edgar Allan Poe fans may like “The Raven,” set in 19th-century Baltimore. The murders of a mother and daughter resemble...

Nicolas Cage has done a lot for nearly as many roles, like eating live cockroaches in Vampire’s Kiss, facing off against a snake in Joe and hiring a “personal drinking coach” for Leaving Las Vegas. But going full method acting isn’t exactly Nicolas Cage’s bag, even if his most recent director thinks so.

At the premiere of his latest movie, Renfield (which hits theaters on April 14th), Nicolas Cage was asked if he actually utilized method acting for his turn as Count Dracula, something director Chris McKay said was true. “I just don’t have that recollection, I don’t know why Chris said that,” said Cage. “I had a lot of laughs in between takes with both Chris McKay and Nick Hoult, so maybe that was his experience, maybe because I still had the fangs in my mouth that made me speak a certain way, but that wasn’t my experience.

Nicolas Cage has denied that he went full method on the set of Renfield, in which he plays Dracula.

In the new movie, Cage, 59, plays the vampire, while Nicholas Hoult, 33, portrays the title character, Dracula’s long-suffering assistant and henchman.

Renfield director Chris McKay recently claimed in an interview that “whatever scene we did he [Cage] would still be 100 per cent living in that attitude after we stopped shooting”.

The director added: “So if he’s a little frosty in the scene he’s going to have a little bit of that between takes. But still up for whatever we were doing.”

At the New York City premiere on Tuesday (28 March), Cage told The Hollywood Reporter that he remembers things differently. “I just don’t have that recollection, I don’t know why Chris said that,” he said.

“I had a lot of laughs in between takes with both Chris McKay and Nick Hoult,...