While a definitive release date has yet to be locked down, a poster and a collection of stills have debuted for the new Nicolas Cage thriller "Stolen" (formerly "Medallion," which made it sound like a negligible Jackie Chan movie), with the appropriately Nic Cage-y tagline: "12 hours. $10 million. 1 kidnapped daughter." We're not sure about the math, but we're certainly excited about the movie!
"Stolen" was written by David Guggenheim, who has sold a number of buzzy scripts in the past few months, including this past spring's drab Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynolds actioner "Safe House" and "Narco Sub," about a drug running via submarine that at least has a tenuous attachment from Tony Scott. "Stolen" concerns a former thief (Cage) racing to save his daughter who has been kidnapped and (wait for it) stashed away in the trunk of a taxi cab. Now we're cooking! The film co-stars Malin Akerman, Danny Huston (who seems incapable of saying no to anything), a curiously-wigged Josh Lucas, and if there's any justice in this world, a cameo by Judd Hirsch. The film, like other recent Cage trashterpieces "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," "Drive Angry" and "Seeking Justice," was filmed on the mean, cost-effective streets of New Orleans, where Cage's hairpiece has become a cultural staple alongside Mardi Gras beads, crawfish and violent beatings.
The poster for "Stolen" is the very definition of blah – Cage captured mid-run (his mouth is open but he appears, at least in this instant, to not be screaming), exploding car in the background, and uninteresting color palette makes it look like a direct-to-video Jason Statham movie. And the photos don't do much to instill hope either – lots of grave-looking dudes standing around, many of them near a taxi cab, with Huston wearing a hat and Lucas coming across as a skuzzy extra from "Breaking Bad" (couldn't you see him during one of Jesse's crazy house parties? Maybe spray-painting a cabinet with gang signs?).
Since the poster proudly proclaims that "Stolen" is "From the Director of 'Expendables 2,'" (that'd be Simon West, auteur behind "Con Air," "The General's Daughter," and remakes of both "The Mechanic" and "When A Stranger Calls"), we're guessing that the film will probably open sometime after "Expendables 2" debuts in August, probably in the dead months where a low-rent thriller like "Stolen" could end up making a few bucks. Assuming it doesn't go pretty much straight-to-VoD like "Trespass" did. We're just wondering if the movie will be worth the cab fare to get to the theater. [Le Blog Du Cinema]
