Nicolas Cage to let John Cusack be the crazy one for once

By Sean O'Neal | July 27, 2011 | 6:33pm

Aux Features Film

Although Nicolas Cage has made the rare decision not to star in something and reportedly backed out of John McTiernan’s Shrapnel—a film that would have reteamed Cage with John Travolta, provided McTiernan’s upcoming prison sentence didn’t get in the way—he’s apparently still intent on making some sort of movie about humans being hunted for sport. Cage is now attached to reunite with another old co-star, his Con Air collaborator John Cusack, in Frozen Ground, a film based on the true story of Robert Hansen, the Alaskan serial killer who balanced an ordinary family life with his hobby of abducting women, turning them loose in the woods, and then hunting and killing them.

The story would concern the efforts of the Alaskan State Trooper who eventually brought Hansen down—and if you naturally assumed that Cage would be the crazy guy doing all the woman-hunting, you suck at reading headlines. In fact, Cage will play the “principled and dedicated” policeman, while Cusack will play the murderer; free yourself from the shackles of your stereotype prison, man. Incidentally, the script comes from newcomer Scott Walker, who is neither the avant-garde singer nor Wisconsin’s much-reviled governor, so there are all sorts of expectations being upended in this story.