Since the change of the century, Nicolas Cage has become one of the usual stars in a wide amount of the action thriller flicks that get produced every year. Some of them, like National Treasure (2004), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), Kick-Ass (2010), Stolen (2012) and Mom and Dad (2017), are fun and entertaining pieces worth to watch. But many others, like Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), The Wicker Man (2006), Ghost Rider (2007), Next (2007), Bangkok Dangerous (2008), The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010), Pay the Ghost (2015) and many many more, are just forgettable shameful wastes of time. Far are the times of the late 1990s, when Cage starred in a row in a series of movies that became classics of the genre The Rock (1996), Con Air (1997) and Face/Off (1997).
But perhaps it all changed last year with Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy (2018), a movie as hated as loved but where Nicolas Cage kind of found his place in this movie’s world we love so much. He has played vengeful characters numerous times, but it was never so bloody, explicit and epic. He is still working in low-quality action thriller productions, but somehow a new door of hope has been open. His participation in Richard Stanley’s Lovecraftian horror title Color Out of Space, and Sion Sono evil thriller Prisoners of the Ghostland, both already in development, might certify that. And now it’s the turn to talk about 10 Double Zero, a crime action thriller already in pre-production.
In 10 Double Zero, Detective Damon Reeves is infamous for crossing the line when he has to. After several fellow officers are killed in a brazen public shootout with bank robbers, Reeves and his partner, Detective Anthony Laveau, set out on a personal vendetta to hunt down the cop killers. As they get closer to solving the crime, they soon find themselves the targets of a conspiracy in the ranks of the police force as the investigation leads right back to them.
The movie has been written by Nick Vallelonga, a veteran Hollywood producer and writer who is one of the popular names in the industry thanks for his award-winning screenplay of the Best Picture in this year’s Oscars Green Book (2018). 10 Double Zero is directed by Christian Sesma and co-starred by Paul Sloan, both of them co-writers of the movie and the director and star respectively of Vigilante Diaries (2016) and its original TV series Vigilante Diaries (2013– ).
It is yet to see which kind will this new movie be, which list 10 Double Zero will enlarge. The bucket of forgettable Nicolas Cage action thriller fails or the list of little golden classics in the genre of adrenaline flicks. But, by the numbers, so far the future looks bright for our favorite action star. At least, it looks a little bit brighter than it did a few years ago. Don’t you think?
