Search icon

Movies & TV

10th Jan 2023

Nicolas Cage reveals his perfect Face/Off sequel plot

Rory Cashin

face/off sequel

The original Face/Off movie recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.

Arriving right in the middle of delivering three of the best action movies of all time, just after The Rock and Con-Air, Nicolas Cage wasn’t even the first choice for the role of Castor Troy (and then Sean Archer) in Face/Off. You can read all about that casting switch-up here, but it is fair to say that the Oscar-winner made the role(s) his own.

Last year, thanks to Cage’s recent series of brilliant role choices including Mandy, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Pig and Color Out Of Space, the director of the planned Face/Off sequel Adam Wingard (The Guest, Godzilla vs. Kong) told Empire that the plan was the get Cage back as Troy… or Archer… or both?

It still isn’t super clear, but while recently speaking to E! News, Cage revealed the following:

“I would love to get back into the Face/Off ring. I think Face/Off is so unique and there’s a lot to mention there that could be explored, especially dealing with the offspring of the characters. It would be almost like three-dimensional chess, three different layers, with the kids and the parents and everybody trying to like face-off.”

Cage also had the following to say about his Face/Off co-star:

“John I always saw as a kindred spirit of sorts, and so much fun to work with and real positive energy. I don’t know if I would look at it as a master class [of acting] as much as, like, just really fun.”

Unfortunately, Travolta hasn’t enjoyed a similar career resurgence – looking over his recent CV, his last good movie was … (scrolls down for quite a bit) … 2007’s Hairspray? 2001’s Swordfish? Yikes… – but one other Face/Off-related person who is also about to make a bit of a comeback is the original movie’s director, John Woo (pictured above with Cage).

After a series of critical duds – Mission: Impossible II, Windtalkers, Paycheck – Woo returned to direct his action epics in China for the last two decades or so, but 2023 will see him return to Hollywood with Silent Night.

Telling the story of “a grieving father (Joel Kinnaman) who enacts his long-awaited revenge against a ruthless gang on Christmas Eve”, early word has it being compared to Woo’s early action masterpieces The Killer, Hard Boiled and A Better Tomorrow.

In the meantime, check out our chat with another Face/Off star, Alessandro Nivola, as he tells a tremendous story about working with Cage (from 5.10 onwards) and the movie’s 25th anniversary:

LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Conor Sketches | Tiger Woods loves Ger Loughnane and cosplaying as Charles LeClerc