Posted in: Amazon Studios, Preview, streaming, TV | Tagged: amazon, marvel, nicolas cage, spider-man noir

Nicolas Cage Offers Spider-Man Noir Insights: "Monsters Are Involved"

In a profile interview posted earlier today, Nicolas Cage offered some interesting insights into the upcoming Spider-Man Noir series.

Published Mon, 08 Jul 2024 17:37:08 -0500

by Ray Flook

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After rumbling around in development land for some time, Amazon had some news to share back in May of this year during its Upfronts presentation – like, some really big news. After weeks of rumors rumbling that something was on the way, we learned that Nicolas Cage had signed for the lead in Spider-Man Noir. Produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios, the series (listed simply as Noir) is set to tell the story of an aging and down-on-his-luck private investigator (Cage) in 1930s New York who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city's one and only superhero. Speaking with The New Yorker for an interview that went live earlier today, Cage had some additional details to share on what he notes will be an eight-episode series. Describing the series as being "more of a Pop-art mashup, like a Lichtenstein painting" that has "some sparkle to it," Cage notes that the violence in the series is more "fantasy" and that "Monsters are involved."

For Cage, Television Allows More Time to Tell The Story: "What interested me was the time I could take expressing something. I saw Bryan Cranston in 'Breaking Bad' stare at a suitcase for half the episode. Just him on the floor looking at a suitcase, thinking, 'What's in it? Do I do this? Don't I do it?' I thought, 'We don't have time to do that in movies.' So that, to me, seemed like an opportunity to open it up a little. I don't know if the project that I'm exploring has room for that. I think this is a much more sort of popcorn-entertainment episodic television.

One Thing Cage Already Likes About "Spider-Man Noir": "I know that the phone's going to be ringing off the hook to play serial killers after 'Longlegs' [Cage's upcoming horror film]. And that's not really what I like to do. I don't like violence. I don't want to play people who are hurting people. One of the things that I like about this potential show is that it's fantasy. It's not really people beating people up. Monsters are involved.

Cage also noted during the interview that he was heading out to have his body scanned for Spider-Man Noir and another project, and reaffirmed his fears that "They're just going to steal my body and do whatever they want with it via digital A.I. … God, I hope not A.I. I'm terrified of that." The actor has been very vocal about his fears regarding the impact that A.I. could have on the creative, artistic experience. "It makes me wonder, you know, where will the truth of the artists end up? Is it going to be replaced? Is it going to be transmogrified? Where's the heartbeat going to be? I mean, what are you going to do with my body and my face when I'm dead? I don't want you to do anything with it!" he added.

Series co-developers Oren Uziel & Steve Lightfoot also serve as co-showrunners and executive producers. Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal also co-developed the series and will serve as executive producers (Pascal, via Pascal Pictures) – with Harry Bradbeer executive-producing and directing the first two episodes. Spider-Man Noir will debut domestically on MGM+'s linear channel – with a global launch from Prime Video to follow.

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