Nicolas Cage on Why He Joined SPIDER-MAN NOIR and Says He's "Terrified" of AI
Nicolas Cage recently interviewed with The New Yorker and he talked a little bit about his upcoming project Spider-Man Noir, and he shared his thoughts on AI, which he is terrified of.
When talking about why he decided to star in Spider-Man Noir, the actor admitted that television was never really that appealing to him, but “what interested me was the time I could take expressing something.”
He explained: “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.”
I hope that Spider-Man Noir allows him to do something different, to explore certain depths of storytelling and acting that he’s never had the opportunity to do before.
Cage also confirmed that the series would consist of eight episodes and that it will be “more of a Pop-art mashup, like a Lichtenstein painting” with “some sparkle to it.”
He went on to what he likes about the potential of the show saying: “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.”
For someone who doesn’t like violence, Cage sure stars in a lot of violent films, and he even plays a sadistic serial killer in his next film, Longlegs.
Cage then shared that after the interview he has to go get a scan done for Spider-Man Noir, and for another movie that he’s signed on to make. It’s at this point he brings AI into the conversation.
He said: “They have to put me in a computer and match my eye color and change — I don’t know. They’re just going to steal my body and do whatever they want with it via digital AI. … God, I hope not AI.
“I’m terrified of that. I’ve been very vocal about it. … And 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!”
I don’t think he’ll have to worry about that stuff because there are now rules in place for that in Hollywood. It’s part of what the actors strike was about.
The series will be set in 1930s New York City, and it will follow the adventures of this fan-favorite Spider-Man variant that's ready to take on the criminal underworld in his signature noir style. It was previously reported that the show will be set in its own universe, and the main character will not be Peter Parker.
In this noir-inspired world, in the comics Peter Parker takes on the mantle of Spider-Man, but with a distinctively cool twist. Clad in a trench coat and fedora, Spider-Man Noir fights crime in the shadows of New York City, navigating a landscape filled with corruption and danger.
The character's design and narrative draw heavily from the film noir genre, incorporating elements of detective fiction and a morally ambiguous atmosphere. Throughout his adventures, Spider-Man Noir confronts a rogues gallery of villains.
The show is being produced by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal.