Prisoners of the Ghostland: Nicolas Cage vs. samurais, ninjas, and ghosts

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

RLJE Films has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to Japanese filmmaker Sion Sono's Prisoners of the Ghostland, which is set to have its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 31st. The movie has been described as a "delirious mash-up of Western, samurai, and post-apocalyptic thriller", and star Nicolas Cage has said it "might the wildest movie I've ever made, and that's saying something". 

Entertainment Weekly decided to ask Sono if he agrees that this could be Cage's wildest movie, and the director replied, 

That's a good question. I'd rather leave that question up to the audience. However, I know that Nicolas Cage has done a lot of great works and some of the works are crazy as well. If audiences think that this is the wildest movie that he's ever made, the craziest movie that he's ever made, then I would be really really happy to hear that."

Written by Aaron Hendry and Reza Sixo Safai, Prisoners of the Ghostland is set 

in the treacherous frontier city of Samurai Town, where a ruthless bank robber (Cage) is sprung from jail by wealthy warlord The Governor (Bill Moseley), whose adopted granddaughter Bernice (Sofia Boutella) has gone missing. The Governor offers the prisoner his freedom in exchange for retrieving the runaway. Strapped into a leather suit that will self-destruct within three days, the bandit sets off on a journey to find the young woman — and his own path to redemption.

Apparently Bernice has "disappeared into a dark supernatural universe", and if venturing into such a place while wearing a self-destructing leather suit weren't trouble enough for Cage's character Hero, Sono has also confirmed that "There are samurais, there are ninjas, and ghosts are part of the story as well."

Cage, Moseley, and Boutella are joined in the cast by Tak Sakaguchi, Yuzuka Nakaya, and Nick Cassavetes.

Prisoners of the Ghostland marks Sono's English-language film debut, and the director had originally been planning to shoot it in Mexico. That plan changed when Sono had a heart attack right before production was scheduled to begin. He told EW, 

I was living in Tokyo and Nicolas Cage himself suggested, 'Why don't we shoot in Japan instead?' That gave a lot of essence to the east-meets-west stuff. That became quite different and super-interesting. (Cage) is literally the easiest person to work with in the world, in my opinion. He never acts like a star-star at all. He tried everything he can to make this movie great for Sion. He did everything for Sion. I actually feel fantastic. Great. Just so you know, I text with Nicolas on a daily basis and we share this happiness that the movie is showing at Sundance."

I can't wait to see this movie, and am very glad that the Sundance audience is going to have a chance to see it soon. I hope it won't be much longer before we start hearing release date announcements.