Tag: Nicolas Cage

This Day in Movie History: February 16

Seven years ago Today in Movie History – February 16 – Ghost Rider got off to a hot start at the box office. Mark Steven Johnson, director of Daredevil, was behind the camera with Nicolas Cage in the role of Johnny Blaze. The comic book adaptation took in an impressive $52 million over President’s Day weekend and earned a total of $115 million domestically. That was enough to earn it a less successful sequel in 2012.

As for birthdays, rapper/actor Ice-T is 56 today. He broke out in film in 1991 with New Jack City. His other notable films include Trespass, Surviving the Game, and Johnny Mnemonic. His most known acting role has been on TV with “Law&Order: SVU”.

Elizabeth Olsen is 25 today. The younger sister of the Olsen twins, Elizabeth garnered rave reviews for her performance in 2011’s indie flick Martha Marcy May Marlene and has since appeared in Kill Your Darlings and Oldboy. There’s no doubt she’s about to become much more known with upcoming parts in the Godzilla reboot and summer 2015’s Avengers sequel.

As for Six Degrees of Separation between the two:

Ice-T was in Trespass with William Sadler

William Sadler was in Die Hard 2 with Bruce Willis

Bruce Willis was in Pulp Fiction with Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel L. Jackson was in Oldboy with Elizabeth Olsen

And that’s today – February 16 – in Movie History!

This Day in Movie History: January 7

On this Day in Movie History – January 7 – the Coen brothers remake of True Grit would jump into the top spot at the box office in its third weekend. Budgeted at only $38 million, the Western (based on the 1969 John Wayne original) would end up grossing a fabulous $171 million domestically. Starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, Grit would earn ten Oscar nominations including Picture, Director, Actor (Bridges), and Supporting Actress (Steinfeld), but would go home empty-handed. The Coen Bros, meanwhile, continue to make pictures that tend to garner Academy attention. Their latest is Inside Llewyn Davis.

The Coens comedy classic, 1987’s Raising Arizona, was only their second feature and it stars one of today’s birthday boys, Nicolas Cage. He turns 50 years old today. Delving into Cage’s filmography would take all day… pretty sure he’s appeared in about 487 movies over the past quarter century or so. To say the least, his catalog has been varied, interesting, and wildly inconsistent. Here’s a sampling: he won an Oscar for 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas and was nominated for 2002’s Adaptation. He’s starred in successful romantic comedies and dramas like Moonstruck alongside Cher, Honeymoon in Vegas, and City of Angels. He’s been a huge action star in hits like The Rock, Con Air, Face/Off, and the National Treasure franchise. There’s been critical favorites and cult flicks that run the gamut from Vampire’s Kiss to Wild at Heart to Red Rock West to Lord of War. He’s worked with his Uncle Francis Ford Coppola in Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, and Peggy Sue Got Married. And he’s worked with Martin Scorsese (Bringing Out the Dead), Ridley Scott (Matchstick Men), and Oliver Stone (World Trade Center). He’s also been Ghost Rider in two moderately successful pics. And yet, there’s also been a bunch of junk: Bangkok Dangerous? Next? Season of the Witch? Snake Eyes? Drive Angry? And, of course, there’s his work in the so-bad-it’s-good remake of The Wicker Man where we all learned Cage’s aversion to “THE BEES”!!!!

Jeremy Renner is 43 today. He broke through in 2009’s The Hurt Locker, which won Best Picture and earned him a Best Actor nomination. The following year he received a Supporting Actor nod for Ben Affleck’s The Town. Since then, he’s immersed himself in successful franchises like the Mission: Impossible series, The Avengers, and as the new Jason Bourne. He can currently be seen in David O. Russell’s Oscar hopeful American Hustle.

As for Six Degrees of Separation between the birthday leading men:

Nicolas Cage in Kiss of Death with Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel L Jackson was in The Avengers with Jeremy Renner

And that’s today – January 7 – in Movie History!