Talk about shaking your perception of reality. We all know that he was supposed to be the new Superman, but apparently Nicolas Cage was at one point also offered both the roles of Neo from The Matrix and Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings franchise. Wow.
The following comes from our friends over at MTV:
“Yeah, there was a couple of movies that I was offered, but I had good reasons, so I couldn’t do it. One was ‘The Matrix,’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings,’” he revealed. “Both are great movies. But they both shot in New Zealand for great quantities of time…I mean years. Well, Australia was ‘The Matrix,’ New Zealand was ‘The Lord of the Rings.’ But I had family obligations, so I’m glad I stayed and I had those experiences with my family.”
Now just soak in that thought for a moment. Imagine how different both of those movie would have ended up being had Nicolas Cage played them. And don’t just jump to the conclusion that it would have made them worse either. Cage has made some questionable films… but he’s an Oscar winning actor and a good one at that.
It’s almost just too trippy to even imagine though…. Cage as Aragorn?!?! Cage saying “I know Kung-Fu”?!?! I almost wish they could remake them now just to see how differently they may have turned out
“o I’m glad I stayed and I had those experiences with my family.”
We are happy too :P
It didn’t say which roles he would have played in either movie.
@guesqq “Neo” and “Aragorn”. As it says in the title of the article.
Further proof that there is a higher power. She/He/It saved us from complete disaster here:)
@ Godfather:
“Nic Cage” not an action star.
Hmm…that double shot from ’97, the silly but entertaining ‘Con Air’ and, most noticeably, “Face Off”. Don’t they count for something? What’s also of note is that Reeves had been in action films -especialy ‘Speed’- but before ‘Matrix’ came out, no one ‘saw’ him as an action star.
I also liked Cage in “Next” more than any film he’s been in the last few years….that includes ‘Ghost Rider’. While the post has a manip of him as Supey (which almost happened under Burton) I wonder what life would have been if he, and not Willem Dafoe, was The Green Goblin.
Cage would have made a GREAT Neo, but I have a hard time imagining him as Aragorn. Maybe that’s just because Viggo Mortensen OWNED the role….
Terry – I thought Jackson fired Stuart Townsend for being too much of a “movie star” on set like he did with Ryan Gosling. fair enough if you ask me
Ok. I know you said not to jump to the conclusion that The Matrix and LOTR would’ve sucked with Cage in them, but that is what I believe (ok… maybe not sucked, but definitely not as good as they were). Reason being, Nick Cage is not an action star. Yes he’s won an Oscar, but that was for an award that didn’t require a helluva lot of movement on his part. Cage can be a great actor in certain roles, but action films are not his fortay.
Cage as Aragorn would have been pretty terrible.
But I can totally see him as Neo. He’s certainly a better actor that Keanu “Sleeping Pill” Reeves.
@Terry
Yes, Joel Silver wanted Will Smith to play Neo which was rejected by the Wachowski’s immediately and Silver called them stupid morons, apparently.
I will agree with every one of the comments about Nick playing Neo. Keaneu just plain sucked in the role and I would have loved to have seen anyone else playing the role who could act!
He would of made a good Neo I think.
Sorry, but I don’t believe any of this lol. Will Smith was in consideration for Neo (don’t know if he was actually offered it and turned it down), and I believe Stuart Townsend was Aragorn..then fired after Peter Jackson thought he was too young.
I am not too sure about aragron but i really think he would have made a great neo but i think he may have been a little too old