Nicolas Cage Says He Doesn’t ‘Understand the Conflict’ Over ‘Masterful’ Marvel Movies vs. Art Films
Samantha Bergeson
Nicolas Cage doesn’t see eye to eye with his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola.
After Coppola again slammed comic book films as “one prototype movie that is made over and over and over and over and over again to look different,” Cage revealed in a March GQ interview that he doesn’t “understand the conflict” between Marvel and independent cinema.
“Yeah, why do they do that?” Cage posited to GQ regarding directors like Coppola and Scorsese bashing comic book films. “I don’t understand the conflict. I don’t agree with them on that perception or opinion.”
A longtime comic book fan, Cage was infamously slated to play Superman in Tim Burton’s “Superman Lives.” Cage went on to portray Ghost Rider in the 2007 and 2011 films.
“I think that the movies that I make, like ‘Pig’ or ‘Joe,’ are not in any kind of conflict with Marvel movies,” Cage said. “I mean, I don’t think the Marvel movie had anything to do with the end of the tweener. By tweener, I mean the $30 to $50 million budget movie. I think movies are in good shape, if you look at ‘Power of the Dog,’ or if you look at ‘Spencer,’ or any of Megan Ellison’s movies, I think that there’s still Paul Thomas Anderson.”
Cage continued, “Marvel has done a really excellent job of entertaining the whole family. They put a lot of thought into it. I mean, it’s definitely had a big progression from when I was doing the first two ‘Ghost Rider’ movies. Kevin Feige, or whoever is behind that machine, has found a masterful way of weaving the stories together and interconnecting all the characters. What could be wrong with wholesome entertainment that is appealing to the parents and the children, and gives people something to look forward to? I just, I don’t see what the issue is.”
Fans speculated that the “Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” star may ride once again in MCU mash-up film “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” but Cage clarified that he most likely won’t be included.
“Oh, I don’t think so. I don’t think they’re casting me,” Cage said. “I mean, I would do it. It would be fun. I’d love to work with [Benedict] Cumberbatch, but I don’t think that’s happening.”
Similar to Cage, “Doctor Strange” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” star Cumberbatch — who is Oscar nominated for Jane Campion’s Netflix Western “The Power of the Dog” — previously told Vanity Fair that he doesn’t see blockbuster and art films as “as completely mutually exclusive.”
“[But] unless you have a Marvel star, financing any film is very, very, very, very difficult — no matter how important the story, no matter how urgent the story, no matter how talented and awarded and appreciated the artist is,” Cumberbatch noted.
“Morbius” actor Jared Leto recently credited Marvel for saving movie theaters, telling Variety, “If it wasn’t for Marvel films, I don’t even know if theaters would exist.”
But Leto concluded more ambivalently that “it doesn’t seem like there’s room for everyone, and that starts to become a little heartbreaking.”
