The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent - What We Know So Far

Nicolas Cage is one of the most enigmatic actors of our time. He started his career delivering odd but critically-acclaimed performances in "Birdy" and "Peggy Sue Got Married." He went on to earn an Academy Award for his role in "Leaving Las Vegas," and it wasn't long after that something extraordinary happened with Cage's trajectory. 

Due to a series of poor financial decisions, Cage found himself without a ton of money, so he began accepting as many roles as possible. This setback led the actor to take movie roles you wouldn't necessarily expect to find an Oscar winner in, and it resulted in some of the weirdest performances of his career in films like "Bangkok Dangerous" and "Drive Angry." These days you're never quite sure what you're going to get out of the actor, and it only seems appropriate that his next role seems poised to be the most Nic Cage-iest of them all. 

The acclaimed actor will play a fictionalized version of himself in the upcoming "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent." In addition to the fantastic title, there are plenty of other reasons to get excited about what's bound to be a highlight of Cage's resume. 

It appears as though the COVID-19 pandemic has placed "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" into a state of flux. Back in February 2020, Deadline reported that the film originally had a March 19, 2021 release date. That time has come and gone with no word about what's going on with Nic Cage's newest movie. More than likely, production received delays from coronavirus, and the studio still needs time to work on it. 

Another report shows how filming on the project began in October 2020 (via Croatia Week), so getting the movie done by March may have been an insurmountable undertaking. Lionsgate has yet to announce another release date, but according to Movie Insider, Lionsgate has the project listed under "post-production" on its release schedule. There may not be a date, but the website does say it will come out "TBA, 2021." Hopefully, that means it should come out within the next six months, but further delays are always possible.

Naturally, the primary attention of this movie has gone toward the fact Nicolas Cage will play himself. However, this version of Cage ends up receiving an offer he just can't refuse when an eccentric billionaire, Javi, invites him to his mansion. Pedro Pascal will play that character, and it's just one of the many exciting roles the actor has on deck on top of playing Joel in "The Last of Us" series coming to HBO Max and reprising his part as Din Djarin for "The Mandalorian" Season 3.

The rest of the cast is equally as exciting and consists of the likes of Tiffany Haddish ("Girls Trip") and Neil Patrick Harris ("How I Met Your Mother"). That level of comedic talent seems appropriate given the inherent ridiculousness of the plot. Other cast members include Lily Mo Sheen ("Everybody's Fine"), Sharon Horgan ("Catastrophe"), Alessandra Mastronardi ("Master of None"), and Jacob Scipio ("Bad Boys for Life").

"The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" has an appropriately meta plot synopsis that comes courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter. Nicolas Cage plays a version of himself who finds himself under an immense amount of debt while trying to land a coveted role in Quentin Tarantino's next movie. He also happens to have visions of another version of himself from the 1990s who constantly berates him for accepting a ton of lousy movie roles over the years. 

These circumstances lead to his interaction with Javi, who's a big fan of Cage's work and wants to pay him $1 million to come to a party. The CIA gets word and wants Cage to go to the party to gain intelligence about whether Javi has actually kidnapped the daughter of a Mexican presidential nominee. The only way to describe this zany plot is "Nic Cage-ian."

The only thing that could make this even stranger is if Nicolas Cage and Pedro Pascal swap faces at some point. One can dream.