Nicolas Cage Just Took on the Most Nicolas Cage Role Yet

If you thought 2002's Adaptation—in which Nicolas Cage plays a mirror image of himself as twin brothers—was appealingly strange, his next movie is about to get even more meta. Actually, Nic Cage fans who've thought any of his movies are strange (and many qualify) will likely appreciate this new venture, which the Guardian deems the "role of a lifetime." Deadline reports that the 55-year-old Academy Award-winning actor will play a version of himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, with Lionsgate said to be the studio now trying to close the deal on the film. The plot involves the character of Nicolas Cage, played by Cage, taking a $1 million offer to attend the birthday party of a Mexican superfan.

Once at the party, however, things get bizarre, forcing Cage (in Deadline's words) to "become a version of some of his most iconic and beloved characters in order to extricate himself from an increasingly dangerous situation." The Hollywood Reporter notes Cage's character is also vying for a role in an upcoming Quentin Tarantino movie and that "he occasionally talks to an egotistical 1990s version of himself who rides him for making too many crappy movies and for not being a star anymore." The screenplay was written by Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten, who co-wrote the Fox series Ghosted. Sources tell THR that Gormican, who's also set to direct, was able to coax Cage onboard after writing him a personal note explaining the film is a "love letter" to him, not poking fun at him. (More Nicolas Cage stories.)