Nicolas Cage Says He Would Love to Work With Brian De Palma on a SNAKE EYES Sequel

Nicolas Cage has made so many movies, that if you ask a film fan what their favorite Nic Cage movie is, you may get a different answer every time. But it’s fun to hear about the different styles across the genres, and it’s really cool to hear which movies the actor himself holds in the highest regards.

In a recent interview with /Film, Cage sat down just to talk about his 1998 crime thriller Snake Eyes (no relation to the G.I. Joe Snake Eyes). In the film, Cage plays Rick Santoro, a shady police detective who finds himself in the middle of a murder conspiracy at an important boxing match in an Atlantic City casino. He is joined in the film by Gary Sinise, Carla Gugino, John Heard, Stan Shaw, Kevin Dunn, Michael Rispoli, Luis Guzman, and Mike Starr.

While this movie wasn’t a huge hit in the box office, Cage has always looked back on it fondly, mostly due to his time working with director Brian De Palma, who he has always hoped to work with again. Cage said:

"You know something? I've been trying to work with Brian ever since I made that movie. We had a great script about Howard Hughes that David Koepp wrote. I'd like to revisit that. But I just found out that it's the 23rd anniversary of 'Snake Eyes.' I don't watch my old movies, but I'm compelled to watch that one again because I had a great time working with Brian, because of his guts and his ability to do these huge takes."

He went on to describe why he liked working with De Palma, and the filmmaker's propensity for a wild style of filming that the actor found incredibly amenable. It involved filming, as Cage described, without a net: 

"We had, like, five-minute cans of film that would swish pan, and we had to act it all out and rehearse it all day. And if you missed one line or flubbed up with a prop or anything, you had to go back to the beginning and do it all over again. He called it 'no-net productions,' and it was stimulating. There was an adrenaline to that. I would love to do a sequel to 'Snake Eyes,' and with Brian De Palma. He's one of my favorite directors."

De Palma, now 82, most recently made the crime thriller Domino in 2019, a film the director himself said he wasn’t happy with. So it would make sense for him to return to the camera to redeem himself with a sure bet like a Nic Cage sequel. I hope it happens. In the meantime, Snake Eyes is available to watch on Showtime, and to rent or buy on Amazon.