Unfortunately, we will probably never see Nicolas Cage playing Jason Voorhees in a Friday the 13th movie… but this is pretty close!
Over at Entertainment Weekly, Cage had a chat about his upcoming revenge thriller, Mandy. Directed by Panos Cosmatos, the gritty flick stars Cage as a lumberjack named Red who lives a peaceful life with the titular Mandy (Andrea Riseborough). Things go horribly wrong when a deranged cult leader (Linus Roache) orchestrates an attack on their home. Fueled by “both vengeance and a liquid hallucinogen,” Red seeks his revenge by violently butchering his way through the cult.
Initially, Cage’s character is a bit more primal with the brutality he unleashes. After consuming this new wonder drug, however, Red goes through a transformation, completely changing his approach to his killings. And, as Cage explains, there was no one better to inspire this role than perhaps the most popular movie murderer of all, Jason Voorhees.
“Before he drinks that supernatural drug, or whatever it is, his fighting style is more ferocious, is more cat-like and feral,” Cage says about his character. “Whereas after the drug, there’s a transformation where he becomes almost like a golem, the ancient Jewish golem that was a supernatural statue that came to life. And I think Panos wanted that, he wanted me to be almost like Jason-esque, you know, from those horror films that were so popular. Panos and I really both decided what the graph of the performance would be. How much more Jason-esque is he there? Or like a statue there? We built this both together.”
Love him or hate him, this is the kind of film that’s perfect for Cage. The movie looks very entertaining, and this could turn out to be one of the actor’s most memorable roles yet. Its early reviews have Mandy sitting at a 97% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so at the very least, things look promising.
Mandy will officially release in theaters on September 14. You can check out the trailer below!
