Nicolas Cage Reunites With ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ Director for ‘Exit 147’

Every once in a while, Nicolas Cage surprises us by taking his career seriously. In between those films, he goes Full Cage in a series of campy action B-movies because it takes a lot of paychecks to afford taking the better roles, you know? Or something like that. Anyway, Cage has seemingly just lined up one of those occasional good roles, re-teaming with Leaving Las Vegas director Mike Figgis for the upcoming thriller Exit 147.

Per Variety, the actor will reunite with the director responsible for Cage winning the Best Actor Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas — related: Nic Cage has an Oscar, in case you’d forgotten. It’s totally understandable if you did.

Exit 147 is described by Figgis as a thriller that’s “dark and scary balanced with edgy humor.” The “edgy humor” part seems like it could be a problem, but Cage was brilliant in Bad Lieutenant, and those adjectives were applicable to that film as well. The plot of the upcoming film centers on intertwining narratives involving a cop (Cage), an abused woman, and her husband, whom Cage arrests — all of whom find themselves involved in a series of troubling mind games.

Cage appears next in The Trust with Elijah Wood, the action flick Pay the Ghost, and he reportedly has a role in Oliver Stone’s Snowden film (which surprised me just now when I looked it up). Here’s hoping we can add Exit 147 to the pile of good Nic Cage roles instead of throwing it on the fire with Left Behind and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.