Nicolas Cage is playing the role he was born to play, well, Nicolas Cage, in the trailer for the new comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.
Actually, as the Oscar winner confessed to Collider last year, the movie centers on a, “neurotic, high-strung, anxiety-ridden” spoof of himself, who, despite his Hollywood stardom, is in need of a quick paycheck.
Incidentally, the latter, at least according to some reports, may have been true.
To that end, Cage’s agent, played by Neil Patrick Harris, has an offer: come to the destination birthday party of an equally eccentric billionaire, Javi Gutierrez, played by The Mandalorian‘s Pedro Pascal, and collect a million bucks.
Javi even has a shrine dedicated to the actor, complete with a less-than-Madam Tussaud’s-quality life-sized replica of the Face-Off star.
“It’s grotesque,” Cage bristles. “I’ll give you $20 thousand dollars for it.”
Again, not totally off-base, seeing as the real Cage once allegedly outbid Leonardo DiCaprio for a 67-million-year-old, $300,000 dinosaur skull.
In the trailer, Cage pokes fun at himself as his big-screen alter-ego chews scenery, dons disguises, and goes on the run with his equally weird new friend. It’s not exactly clear what happens once he does, but anything’s possible from a movie its producers are calling “The Most Nicolas Cage Movie Ever.”
Also starring Tiffany Haddish, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent opens April 22.
(Trailer includes uncensored profanity.)
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