By Josh Reilly
Nicolas Cage is currently on tour to promote his latest film, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, in which a semi-fictionalized version of himself is recruited by the U.S. government to spy on a dangerous criminal who just so happens to be a mega fan of the actor. As is the case with films these days, the cast and crew have done plenty of interviews about the project.
While speaking with Fox 7 Austin, Nicolas Cage was asked who he would like to play out of Batman’s array of iconic villains. It’s a question that has particular relevance right now, especially as Matt Reeves’ The Batman released in theaters earlier this month. Cage gave quite an unexpected answer, saying he’d like to play none other than Egghead:
“I can make him absolutely terrifying.”
Egghead is far from the most iconic or well known of the Dark Knight’s villains, and was actually created for the Batman TV show of the 1960’s starring Adam West. In the show, Egghead was played by legendary horror actor Vincent Price in seven episodes, and was a character that had genius level intelligence and various egg-like weaponry, a fitting arsenal for a villain going up against Adam West’s version of the character. Interestingly, Egghead was one of the few villains to figure out Batman’s secret identity, and was the only one to do so on his own, as the others tricked the Caped Crusader into revealing himself.
Since then, Egghead has appeared in a handful of animated shows as well as the occasional comic book, and even came back briefly in The LEGO Batman Movie. However, he hasn’t been seen too much since Vincent Price’s portrayal, in part because of the lack of comic book history of the character and the way in which the lighthearted tone contradicts with Batman’s modern day darkness, meaning that a return for Egghead would be quite the surprise, especially if he was played by none other than Nicolas Cage.
The Batman is in theaters now.
Source: Fox 7 Austin