Last month, news broke that Nicolas Cage was joining indie thriller Vengeance: A Love Story. Back then, Harold Becker was on board to direct, but now Variety offers word that Cage is taking over the big chair.
Adapted by John Mankiewicz from a 2003 novel by Joyce Carol Oates – which goes by the rather more startling title Rape: A Love Story – the thriller involves a 30-year-old single mother called Teena, who is gang raped and left for dead, the whole ordeal witnessed by her young daughter Bethie. In the ensuing court case it's the victim who's blamed for being "provocative" and "having it coming", and her assailants are exonerated by their hotshot defence lawyer. But a Gulf War veteran policeman named Dromoor (Cage) becomes her champion, meting out justice of his own devising.
Oates' sombre novel is a meditation on the after-effects of violence, told from the alternating perspectives of Teena and Bethie. The potential pitfall of the movie adaptation then, is that it becomes a more conventional thriller, shifting the focus to the man who "fixes" everything with his vigilante crusade. Cage now has a chance to make it his own, but we'll see which angle he takes... “I’m excited to work on Vengeance: A Love Story and bring Joyce Carol Oates’ bittersweet novel to the screen,” Cage says. “Storytelling has always been my passion and I’m honored to work with this talented team to tell a tale of the suffering too many women have endured.”
The rest of the casting should come together soon, as Cage - making only his second appearance behind the camera in 14 years – will start shooting next month in Atlanta.