Vanessa Hudgens Joins Nic Cage and John Cusack in FROZEN GROUND

High School Musical and Sucker Punch star Vanessa Hudgens has joined Frozen Ground, a new thriller set to shoot in Alaska on October 17th, 2011.

The film, written and directed by first time director Scott Walker, will follow the real-life events of infamous Alaskan serial killer Robert Hansen.  Deadline has the synopsis:

Cusack is playing Hansen, regarded in the community as a respected family man. In the span of 12 years, he abducted more than 24 women, flew them into the Alaskan wilderness, and hunted and murdered them. Hudgens will play the one teenage victim who escaped. When she returned to tell her story, nobody believed her. Cage will play the Alaskan State Trooper who finds her on the street. Together they work to bring Hansen to justice.

Thanks to the similar setting and subject matter, I was instantly reminded of Christopher Nolan's Insomnia when I read that synopsis, but let's not hold the first time director to Nolan-level quality just yet. Perhaps the most important factor in this equation is what kind of performance Walker can coax from Nic Cage, a notorious wild card known more for his insane performances in the past few years than his Oscar-worthy ones from years past.

Frozen Ground sounds like it has the makings of a great thriller to me, almost like a throwback to the Morgan Freeman/Alex Cross films from the late '90s and early 2000s. Let's take bets on it now - do you think we'll see wild Nic Cage or reserved Nic Cage when this one hits theaters?