Neil Patrick Harris cast in Nicolas Cage action satire film

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Neil Patrick Harris, Nicolas Cage, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Lionsgate

Lionsgate's Nicolas Cage action satire THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT has added Neil Patrick Harris to its cast. He joins previously named contributors Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddish, and Sharon Horgan for what sounds like an absurdly funny experiment in meta filmmaking.

Cage will play himself in the film, which will find the actor desperate to land a role in the new Quentin Tarantino film while also dealing with a strained relationship with his teenage daughter. Every so often, he also happens to speak with an egotistical 1990s version of himself who is on his case for making too many bad movies and not being a major star anymore. I already love it, but there's more – Faced with crippling debt, Nicolas Cage is forced to appear at the birthday party of a Mexican billionaire who just so happens to be a fan and wants to show him the script he's been working on. After bonding with the man, the CIA enters the picture and informs Cage that the billionaire is actually a drug cartel kingpin who has kidnapped the daughter of a Mexican presidential nominee. Tasked with gathering intelligence, Cage's job gets all the more dangerous when the billionaire brings over Cage's daughter and ex-wife for a reconciliation.

What the what? I can honestly say that I don't know if I've ever needed a movie to exist more in my entire life.

Harris will play Cage's talent agent in the film, which is scripted by Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten, with Gormican attached to direct. THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT will include nods to famous Nicolas Cage movies such as LEAVING LAS VEGA, FACE-OFF, and GONE IN 60 SECONDS, and it's been said that the project will have a similar tone to ADAPTATION, JCVD, and GET SHORTY. As the story goes, Gormican attached a letter to the script when first showing it to Cage, explaining that the film is really a love letter to the actor rather than something which makes fun of him. Then, because Cage is the type of actor to lean into the punches, he enthusiastically accepted the gig.

THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT is currently in production and we'll be sure to update you as soon as more details come in.

 

Source: Deadline

About the Author

Born and raised in New York, then immigrated to Canada, Steve Seigh has been a JoBlo.com editor, columnist, and critic since 2012. He started with Ink & Pixel, a column celebrating the magic and evolution of animation, before launching the companion YouTube series Animation Movies Revisited. He's also the host of the Talking Comics Podcast, a personality-driven audio show focusing on comic books, film, music, and more. You'll rarely catch him without headphones on his head and pancakes on his breath.