By now I think we've all come to accept that Nicolas Cage's career will always be a bazarre one, with the actor likely to do pretty much anything that will cause us to say "What the f**k?". Well, prepare for another shocker as Cage is set to star in a mainstream remake of the Christian-themed Left Behind trilogy. God damn this could be awful.
The relaunch has been in the works since last year, but obviously this is the kick in the pants needed to really get the ball rolling on this likely disaster. The Left Behind series is a collection of 16 novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. The overarching story takes place in the aftermath of the Rapture and follows a group of god warriors battling against the Global Community, the despotic anti-Christian world government. The books were adapted into a feature film trilogy starring that fanatical douche Kirk Cameron. They garnered a lot of attention for flicks that were generally piss-poor, featuring shoddy direction and super low budgets. But they did have Louis Gossett Jr., who is always cool to see.
Cloud Ten Pictures is back to produce the film, budgeted at around $15M, roughly $10M more than the original Left Behind cost. Paul Lalonde, writer of the first three films, will produce and co-write the script with John Patus.
I don't know enough about Cage to gauge just how religious he is, but I do remember he starred in Knowing which was a cool mix of religion and science-fiction. These probably won't come anywhere close to that, though. As bad as this sounds, Christian-themed movies have proven to be big draws, and maybe Cage can bring a little more attention to them. Is it too much to ask that Kirk Cameron come back? Can you imagine how nutso those conversations between him and Cage would be? [Variety]
