Nicolas Cage Reveals ‘Face/Off 2’ Details
Nicolas Cage gives us the first Face/Off 2 details we’ve gotten in nearly two years. The story will be a face-swapping extravaganza.
Face/Off is one of the most outlandish action movies ever. To find the location of a bomb and stop an attack, an FBI agent literally swaps faces with a terrorist. They use some super-secret new-fangled tech to do it. Insanity ensues. There’s dubious science, ridiculous gunfights, boat chases, questionable relationship choices, and doves. The two Oscar-winning lead actors give bonkers performances. It’s action movie master John Woo’s third American-made feature and his biggest original hit.
It has a huge cult following and a 92% critics’ RT score that defies logic. It’s a personal favorite.
Face/Off 2
Paramount announced in 2019 that they were pulling it out of their archives to make another Face/Off movie. Initially, it was a remake with Oren Uziel (Sonic the Hedgehog) working on the script. Two years later, it was announced that Adam Wingard (Godzilla vs. Kong) would be directing with a script from long-time partner Simon Barrett (You’re Next). Beyond a couple of now-deleted tweets from the creative team and an AMA answer from Cage, there hasn’t been much news about the project.
“I think Face/Off is a sequel that lends itself to a lot of twists and turns and unpredictability. It’s almost like if you factor in the idea of offspring and Castor and Sean having children and these children grow up, then it becomes like three-dimensional chess, and then it’s not just the two, John Travolta and myself, it’s four of us ping-ponging and going at different levels, and it becomes even more complex. I think there’s a lot of fertile ground there. I had maybe one meeting in an office, but I haven’t heard anything since, so I don’t know.”
I’d love to be excited, but tons of face-swapping with a new generation of characters sounds goofy in a bad way. The original is amazing because of how hard its lead actors go, John Woo’s vision, and the pre-CG take-over period during which it was made. It’s going to be hard to recapture that, and I wonder if it’s worth it. I’ll hold out to judge if/when it comes out, but that possible synopsis does not enthuse me.