About six years ago I went on one of those ‘Hollywood Star Homes‘ tours. You know the ones; open-top bus that fangs through Bel-Air and West Hollywood and points out the fancy places where celebrities live.
There were some standard highlights: The Playboy Mansion; the rented house that Michael Jackson died in; the house they used for the outside establishing shots in ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,’ which damn near made me jump out of the bus.
But the best bit of the whole tour was a really big, and really empty house that had its gate chained shut and a single A4-sheet of paper taped over the lock. The tour guide explained that the house had belonged to Nicolas Cage, but that he’d run into money troubles during the financial crisis and had done a runner on it. The bank hadn’t taken it back or foreclosed on it in any way, mind you. Nic Cage had simply locked the place up, put an abandoned notice on the gate, and fucked off to one of his other pads. Whether that story’s true or not is irrelevant. The bottom line here is that Nicolas Cage is a genuine mad man, and I love him eternally for it.
Which brings me to today, and the glorious story of Nicolas Cage crashing a Nicolas Cage movie marathon, and the resulting 10-odd hours of pure Cage-level joy that ensued.
The Alamo Drafthouse – a cinema chain in Texas that is heaven for film nerds – hosts an annual Cage-a-thon known as ‘Caged,’ where people are presented five Cage movies (unadvertised before the start of the show, which is half the fun) back-to-back. This year, in its fourth instalment (‘C4GED,’ because I repeat my previous point about the Drafthouse being heaven), Cage himself decided to show up.
Not only did he just show up, he kicked off proceedings by wandering on to stage and reading out Edgar Allan Poe‘s classic ‘The Tell-Tale Heart‘ in its entirety. Just because.
He then gesticulated and emoted around the stage as only Nic Cage can, all the while sipping scotch from a glass with his own face on it.
And if that weren’t enough as is, he presided over a mid-marathon proposal which resulted in this instantly iconic shot; one that the lucky couple should print on bedsheets, if they know what’s good for them.
Cage then stuck around for the entire 5-movie marathon, one which he programmed cover-to-cover by his dang self, choosing:
- Bangkok Dangerous
- Joe
- Bringing Out The Dead
- Army Of One
- Lord Of War
He opened the whole shebang with a Thai-crime film where he played a character named ‘Joe,’ then followed it up with a film literally called ‘Joe.’ It’s the little things, y’know?
Oh, dear, sweet, magnificent, batshit crazy Nicolas Cage. Never change, and never die.
Source: Birth Movies Death.
Photos: Heather Kennedy, Alamo Drafthouse/Facebook.
