Let Nic Cage Play Egghead in The Batman Sequel, You Cowards

Longtime comedian ebook nerd Nicolas Cage is all the time recreation for starring in a superhero film. Although he was in two Ghost Rider movies and the primary Kick-Ass film, he by no means obtained to play the Man of Steel within the ill-fated Superman Lives means again within the ‘90s, which means he’s but to be in a DC film. Cage is aware of which new character he needs to play and he needs Warner Bros. to let him have a crack at it, pun meant.

At this 12 months’s SXSW, Cage informed IGN he was concerned about enjoying Egghead within the sequel to this 12 months’s The Batman. If you haven’t heard of the character, don’t fear about it. He’s an obscure villain created for the 1966 Batman TV collection who has solely proven up in a handful of comics since, nearly invariably as an Easter egg (pun unintended this time). Egghead’s deal is that his head is unnaturally huge as a result of it housed a mind so huge and an mind so nice a standard human cranium couldn’t comprise it. It additionally prompted Egghead to someway undertake a very egg-centric supervillain life-style, from utilizing egg-themed weapons, egg design motifs, and saying “eggs” as an alternative of “ex-” (as in “eggs-actly”). He was memorably performed—properly, memorably when you ever watched the 50-plus-year-old present—by horror legend Vincent Price, who introduced a debonair and chilly detachment to the genius character.

“Debonair” and “detached” aren’t phrases often used to explain latter-day Nic Cage performances, who’s principally identified for lunacy like The Wicker Man remake. However, when you’ve seen his eclectic slate of latest unbiased films, you realize he’s had all kinds of nice performances, together with the upcoming The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which has been extremely well-reviewed up to now. The man can act, is what I’m saying, and enjoying any Batman villain is properly inside his abilities. And as he mentioned within the interview, if he thinks he could make one of many Dark Knight’s goofiest rogues—who actually wielded “tear gas eggs” laid by chickens raised fully on a weight loss plan of onions—terrifying, I imagine him.

I additionally imagine that Egghead wouldn’t be the worst concept for a foe in The Batman follow-up. While the Caped Crusader has loads of sensible foes, the Riddler was extra intelligent than sensible, and extra of a Zodiac-style serial killer than a felony mastermind. Since The Batman was the primary Bat-movie to concentrate on the character’s detective abilities along with having him beat up a bunch of individuals, pitting him in opposition to a straight-up genius could be thematically on-point for the rebooted franchise. Drop the egg puns and egg-tech, lose the comically outsized head, have somebody make an apart that “he’s an evil genius, a real egghead,” and growth, you’re accomplished.

Admittedly, I desperately need to see a Batman film that goes past the A-list of Bat-foes. But I additionally desperately need to see a Batman film that lightens up somewhat. One of the good issues about this golden age of superhero films is that there’s room for all types of interpretations of those heroes (properly, at DC, at the very least), which is why we’re getting Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne in The Batman, whereas Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck will reportedly each reprise their roles because the Dark Knight within the upcoming Flash film.

Maybe they’ll be much less dour than of their authentic movies, however I form of doubt it. And that’s all superb, however think about a Batman movie that wasn’t utterly grim and darkish? Not a goofy, G-rated comedy just like the TV collection or The Lego Batman, however a film that took the hero severely with out making him utterly tortured. Where the villains have evil schemes however don’t find yourself with a physique rely within the double digits. Imagine a Batman movie the place he was dressed within the blue-and-gray costume he wore for the majority of his comics profession. How superb would that be? A film that was neither goofy nor grim, however simply… enjoyable?

Unfortunately, for all of the work Warner Bros. has been keen to do to place a number of Batmen on-screen, I’ve a tough time imagining the studio is concerned about striding that center floor. Or concerned about placing an actor with such a infamous status for hamming it up—even when he definitively has the vary; severely, go watch Pig—lest its film be perceived as something apart from lethal critical. At the very least, I doubt WB could be keen to transcend the A- or B-list of Batman’s rogues’ gallery resulting from fears that obscure villains like Egghead received’t entice mass audiences (and most field workplace).

The studio truthfully could be proper, however rattling, I’d like to see Nic Cage as Egghead in a big-budget Batman film as a lot because the actor would like to be in it. But if Cage as Egghead received’t work, possibly we may forged Rami Malek as King Tut?

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