http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=20346

Nicolas Cage to Play Al Capone
Source: MTV May 11, 2007


MTV reports that Nicolas Cage will reteam with Snake Eyes director Brian DePalma for The Untouchables: Capone Rising.

Cage will play a younger version of Al Capone, the character made famous by Robert De Niro. "Capone Rising" is a prequel to DePalma's 1987 classic The Untouchables, and will revolve around the early dealings between Capone and Irish cop Jimmy Malone, a role that garnered an Oscar for Sean Connery.

Principal photography will begin in October.



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This sounds interesting.

I can see Cage playing a young Capone. Cage has that acting ability to put on that psychotic persona. He did a great job of it in Face-Off and I can see him bringing that same style of acting to his Capone character.

I don't know. Capone's physical appearance is so well known, I'm not sure that Cage can mimic it.

Ask Irishman, he'll tell you that Cage's magic touch in the magical turd GHOST RIDER will carry through.

Ask RRA, and I'll say...will Cage take the movie away from DePalma in post-production like he did on SNAKE EYES?

Probably.

Then again, unless I'm horribly mistaken, Art Linson is a producer on the project, and he rules. FIGHT CLUB, THE BLACK DAHLIA, SPARTAN, he's got street cred, yo. Maybe he tells Francis Ford Coppola's nehpew, the same genius that named his kid Kal El, to eat it.

Otherwise, I think its fine casting. Its not special, but the project wanted a big movie star to tentpole the film in markets, and here he is, but will Cage continue with his annoying facial ticks?

Probably

Cage lacks the silent facial intensity of De Niro; he almost always looks like he's playing some sort of parody - his kickass cop performance in World Trade Center was almost, almost, laughable.

He's effective at overacting, though: as Don Cardi said, he's good in Face Off; tolerable enough in Wild At Heart and he's brilliant in Con Air.

Maybe I'm retarded for admitting this, but I actually liked Ghost Rider.

I personally can't see Cage playing Capone though. I'm definitely curious to see how he does.

Worst Cage movie ever - Windtalkers.

I'd be willing to give this film a look-see. Cage definitely has talent--we'll see how he does. I got all leaped up about DeNiro playing Capone in "The Untouchables"--so much so that I saw it the day it opened. His role was little more than cameo, but Connery more than made up for it.
For my money, the all-time best screen Capone was Rod Steiger in "Al Capone." This was no better than a B-movie, and not a very good one at that. But Steiger was brilliant, almost as intense in that role as DeNiro was in "Raging Bull" or Brando in "Streetcar." IMO, it was Steiger's best performance, and he gave many great performances during his long career.

Cage is almost as old as Capone was when Capone died.
50 year old Deniro was playing a 30 year old guy.

The Untouchables is almost intolerable for me these days.

Untouchables was intolerable for me the first time I saw it. I think the story is good and De Niro is great, but there's something about the way the film is made that makes me cringe. The slow motion scenes, the weird music, and Kevin Costner... well I've never liked him.

Maybe they should remake Untouchables, and Cage could play Capone in that movie too

I thought that Connery and Garcia stole the movie. To me, DeNiro was borderline cartoonish and Costner was almost an afterthought. Still, I enjoyed it.

And Connery isn't cartoonish? His whole character is a caricature. A Scottish actor who made his name as an English spy playing an Irish American cop might prove versatility, but I find it appalling to watch. Garcia's role is just as bad. But Garcia's always been wooden and limited. He sort of fits into The Godfather Part III because he borrows from Pacino by disguising any acting inadequacy by shouting uncontrollably in fits and starts and violent bursts of masculine angst. It does very little for me.

I've never cared (or perhaps once did in younger days) for blending violence with one-liners. It works in certain fields - though James Bond was going down shit creek before Craig's rejuvenation - but De Palma's adventure film, besides a few of the expected decorative stylistic touches, is a drab affair of awkward sentimentality and undeserved dramatic incrementum. The slow-motion of the pram descending the stairs couldn't be any more obvious a shout of "LOOK! WE'RE PAYING HOMAGE TO EISENSTEIN! TAKE NOTE! I LOVE FILMS!!!"

It is ironic that Connery is much more popular in America than he is in the UK, would you agree ?

Yeah, that seems to be so.

Haha, a few foreigners on campus said I talked like him.

But I say yes instead of yesh.

Off-topic, speaking of the UK. It seems that Prince Harry will NOT be sent to Iraq after all. There's a big surprise. Although you could hardly blame them. He'd be a bigger target than Paris Hilton in the ladies shower in lock-up.

If you were Peter Falk, you'd say "yaisch."

I happen to like Sean Connery. But I also agree with Capo that he is sort of a caricature. He brings a lot of animation to the roles that he takes. Maybe that's what has made him such an interesting actor over the years.

One movie that he made which I thought was an excellent movie in which he did an excellent job in is a movie called 'Finding Forrester.'

I also remember that William Forsythe played Capone in the 90's version of the Untouchables that ran on TV. I also remember the movie version with Rod Steiger. Too bad the film isn't out on dvd.

Yes, Steiger as Capone was the best. i thought he captured Capone's ruthlessness and I just love Steiger's staccato delivery.

His character in Finding Forrester is my favorite "real" role by Connery. My favorite over all though is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Not sure if that would be considered a legitimate acting role, but Connery and Ford together were very entertaining.

Connery's performance in Finding Forrester is very good, but it's an outright re-run of Robin Williams's in Good Will Hunting. Same director, same narrative arc, considerably inferior film overall.

Danny de Vito is the right shape to play Capone but i don't think he would be right for the role........

I believe that cage has left the project. IMHO james gandolfini would be a perfect capone.

When is this movie supposed to start filming?

http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/zap-no...-news-headlines


Cage Exiting 'Capone' Rising
Gerard Butler will still star
May 25, 2007


It looks like Nicolas Cage won't be appearing in Brian DePalma's sequel to "The Untouchables" after all.

Slightly over a week after Variety reported that Cage would play Chicago mobster Al Capone in "The Untouchables: Capone Rising," the trade paper is now saying that scheduling conflicts will prevent Cage from doing the film.

While Cage is out, it was announced last week that "300" star Gerard Butler will play cop Jimmy Malone, the role that earned Sean Connery an Oscar, in the prequel.

Relativity Media is financing "Capone Rising," which has already secured domestic distribution through Paramount.

Cage had a spring hit with "Ghost Rider" and a spring dud with "Next," following last fall's relatively successful "World Trade Center" and the bomb that was "The Wicker Man." He's already completed work on a remake of "Bangkok Dangerous" and is in production on "National Treasure: Book of Secrets."

It's unclear what his next project will be or what actor will step into the young Capone role.

Wait their making an Untouchables 2? I hated the first one! The second Nitti is thrown off the roof (by wimpy Costner) I turned off the tv! I gave it a second chance a few days later, it managed to be worse in the second viewing.

If this turns out be any type of success, we'll be seeing this advertisment very soon...

Paramount Pictures Presents...

Mark Winegardner's

The Godfather Returns

Well I guess you'll be sad to hear that Paramount has bought the rights...to BOTH books. They purchased these rights after The Godfather: The Game sold like hotcakes.

Even though both of Winegardner's books were lame...Returns was on NY Times Best Seller's List and Revenge did very well (depsite reviews). Paramount knows they'll make money off this franchise since consumers are still buying anything "Godfather".

I think it would be better for HBO to make both books a mini series...especially since The Sopranos is almost gone.

We knew from 2 years ago that Paramount had the option. They OWN the characters. That doesn't mean they have to exercise said option. If they ever do make a Part 4, most of us just pray that they'll go with a different storyline.