**Update: **No need for Michael or anyone else, apparently. He's back! Yes, Cage apparently woke up on one morning and decided that he did want to do the film after all. Surely nothing to do with rumours of Schumacher threatening to make him watch Batman & Robin on a loop. According to Deadline's latest story,Cage will return to the role of the husband, with Cam Gigandet taking the kidnapper part. The original story is below, for history's sake...
Nic Cage has plenty of friends in Hollywood, but he may have lost a couple after apparently leaving the cast of Joel Schumacher’s latest film, Trespass, less than two weeksaway from the start of shooting.
According to Deadline, Cage backed out of the movie late last week, then headed off on holiday and has been all but unreachable since.
While he’d signed on the dotted for a $7 million contract to co-star with Nicole Kidman in the tale of a couple who are taken hostage by home invaders looking for a payout, the producers are probably glad that the play-or-pay option (which would have meant them coughing up the dosh regardless) hadn’t kicked in.
And all this is despite Schumacher and his team obliging the actor when he asked to switch from the role of the husband to play the main kidnapper.
Producer Avi Lerner is now left looking for someone who A) wants the villainous role B) is a big enough star to justify a $35 million budget and C) has time in their schedule to head to Louisiana to shoot almost immediately. Michael Madsen, put your hand down.**
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