Nicolas Cage is going to play a dragon who drinks 'obscene amounts of vodka'

Nicolas Cage
(Image credit: Sascha Steinbach/Getty Images)

If there's one constant even during the COVID-19 pandemic, it's truly wild Nicolas Cage casting announcements.

Case in point: on Friday, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Cage will star in and produce the new Amazon series Highfire, which is based on the Eoin Colfer book. Cage will be voicing the lead character, a "TV-loving dragon who lives in seclusion in the Louisiana bayou" drinking "obscene amounts of vodka."

Deadline describes the show as a "gritty crime-thriller with doses of magical realism" and the book as "True Detective by way of Pete's Dragon," probably the first time those titles have ever appeared in the same sentence.

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Add this to the list of extremely Cage-appropriate projects Cage has on the docket alongside that show where he'll be playing Tiger King's Joe Exotic and that movie where he'll be playing ... Nicolas Cage.

We can only hope this dragon role in Highfire will involve some kind of motion capture, Smaug style. In fact, footage of such a Cage motion capture performance may end up being significantly more entertaining than the actual show.

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.