Point one: Back in 2001, thieves ran off with a copy of Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman and arguably the beginning of the superhero genre, that belonged to none other than Nicolas Cage.
Point two: It is now clear that there exists a movie role that Nicolas Cage will turn down.
Can you guess what these two facts have in common?
That’s right, while the people who walked off with Nicolas Cage’s $2.1 million dollar copy of Action Comics #1 have never been brought to justice, not knowing the actual facts has never stopped Hollywood from making movies about an event. And so Reno 911 creators Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon have crafted a script for Action No. 1, a heist film about a bunch of nerds stealing Nic Cage’s Superman comic.
The part was written for Nicolas Cage, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, the star of Wicker Man, Season of the Witch, Drive Angry, Ghostrider, (okay, and like, to be fair, Con Air and The Rock) isn’t interested in reliving his loss. I have to relate: if my long stolen comic was recovered years later in an abandoned storage space, and then auctioned off by somebody other than me to somebody other than me with still no idea of who stole it… I’d probably be feeling bitter.
Like if I’d misplaced this ring, see, and some little dude found it in a river, and then lost it to a guy in a cave, and then, like, years after that, it was used to utterly destroy me and all that I’d crafted. I mean, I’d be seeing red.
Anyway, the project has producers, and apparently Jason Statham‘s name was floated as a cast member (though it’s since been sunk). Since I can’t really see him playing a nerd in a nerd heist film, I’m inclined to believe THR when it says he’s likely in talks to play Cage’s character in the film. But as the Playlist suggests: Get Andy Samberg to do it.
(The Hollywood Reporter via The Playlist.)
