TVSquad

I stumbled across a story on The Earth Times site last night about Nicolas Cage being set to play Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in an Egyptian TV series. Being skeptical, I scouted around a bit and found blurbs on some Nic Cage fan sites; still, we'll just call this a rumor at this point.

I actually wouldn't be surprised if the story is true. Cage has a string of diverse projects in his past, everything from producing The Life of David Gale (a death penalty opponent) to voicing a part in the animated family movie, The Ant Bully. And, of course, there's his National Treasure movies, which I love.

According to the Earth Times story, Cage will lose six kilograms to play the part of Sadat (which, if the conversion site I looked at is true, comes to about 13 lbs.) before he starts shooting the series. It also notes that he'll be paid $40 million. Wow, that's some serious cash.

I'm going to file this under "Rumor" for now, since none of the major outlets appear to have anything on it, but some of the more gossipy sites are reporting the same story that actor Nicolas Cage is considering the role of Thomas Sullivan Magnum, IV in an upcoming film version of the popular '80s dramedy Magnum P.I. Tom Selleck, of course, played Magnum in the original series, and has said in several interviews he wanted to play the character in the film version.

Some have argued Selleck's too old to play the part, and that's true, he is too old to play a young Magnum, but with "senior citizens" such as Bruce Willis and Harrison Ford coming back to play roles from their more youthful days, I don't think Selleck returning as an older, seasoned Magnum is a terrible idea for a feature film.