Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Andrew Sanford | News | March 17, 2025
Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse was the most surprising movie I’ve ever seen in a theater. It shocked me because, while I expected it to be good, I didn’t know it would be phenomenal. I didn’t expect to be overcome with emotion by simply seeing Miles Morales brought to life on a big screen. Not once did I assume it would be a movie about how anyone can be Spider-Man, no matter where you come from. It was perfect, and that perfection was bolstered by the film’s supporting cast.
Never in a million years did I expect to find myself emotionally invested in Spider-Pig, but dammit, Spiderverse accomplished that! I hadn’t even heard of Peni Parker, a manga-inspired Spider-Man with a mech Spider, but she was so rad and co-created by the lead singer of My Chemical Romance. A character I had been familiar with was Spider-Man Noir, as I had read those comics previously. Even with prior knowledge, I could not have expected how perfect Nicolas Cage would be in the role.
Cage is one of our great popular actors because he will try anything. The man isn’t afraid to get big or weird or gross despite his sizeable fame (and some would argue he has that fame because of his capacity for big weird grossness). He can star in a big studio movie one month, then appear in a straight-to-streaming horror the next, and still find himself in the Oscar race for a prestige A24 film by the fall. You never know what the man will do, and despite the film’s success, it was surprising to learn he’d appear in a Spiderverse spinoff and even more surprising that it’s live-action.
The Con Air actor will lead a Spider-Man Noir show on Amazon and, even in the throes of superhero fatigue, I welcome it readily. Cage will be joined by Pu**y Posse member Lucas Haas, who revealed some interesting details about the show in an interview with ComingSoon.net. “It was just an incredible project,” he explained. “Everybody involved was amazing. Brendan Gleason, he plays my boss. Just getting to, to do that noir thing. It was very genuine film noir, the way they filmed it, like the long shadows.” Haas and Gleason together at last? Sign me up. But the next reveal seals the deal.
“We filmed it in — I think it may come out in both black and white and color, but when we filmed it, the monitors were all black and white, so you got this feeling, and it looked very, very authentic,” Haas noted. “To the point that I would actually go and look at the monitor and think I was looking at some older footage, but it was actually just a monitor of what was on the camera at the time. They did a beautiful job with the filters and all that stuff, making it look like genuine old 1930s black-and-white film. But obviously, just the writing, and Nic is incredible. It’s just a really fun project and I cannot wait to see how it turns out.” Black-and-white you say?!
Cage’s Spider-Man Noir appears in black-and-white when onscreen in the animated film, but it wasn’t guaranteed that would be the case for the live-action show. While it sounds like we may have an option, it feels like a no-brainer to watch in black-and-white given the setting and style. I’ll be watching regardless, ready to see another insane entry into Nick Cage’s fantastical career.
