The Cageaissance may be upon us. After earning his best reviews in years with Sundance’s Mandy, Nicolas Cage will help Sion Sono make an English-language debut with the post-apocalyptic picture Prisonsers of the Ghostland, which Deadline describes as the story of a “notorious criminal Hero (Cage) who is sent to rescue an abducted girl who has disappeared into a dark supernatural universe.” Melding the origins of its direcotr and setting, Reza Sixo Safai (what a name) and Aaron Hendry’s script finds them in “an East-meets-West vortex of beauty and violence” while trying to “escape the mysterious revenants that rule the Ghostland.” A lot of which sounds like nonsense, and very well could be, but Sono can handle that. And thoughts of the pairing alone will be worth the price of admission.
Meanwhile, Cohen Media Group have reunited with Abderrahmane Sissako for the Mauritanian auteur’s The Perfumed Hill. Kessen Tall, with whom he crafted the great Timbuktu, will co-write the feature, a love story that builds off a moment from 2002’s Waiting for Happiness and shifts between Africa and China. Shooting doesn’t commence until 2019, so much else remains to be seen. We can’t wait for this to unfold. [THR]
And Deadline also tells us Quentin Tarantino’s don’t-call-it-a-Manson-movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has wisely expanded its cast to include Timothy Olyphant. His role, like almost every other being set up — the supporting list includes Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Burt Reynolds — is under wraps, and, rarely for a Tarantino move, the question remains as to whether he’ll be playing a real or fictional figure. With Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and — finally confirmed as Sharton Tate — Margot Robbie leading, the picture opens on August 9, 2019