Nicolas Cage and John Travolta are still on track to face off again in a sequel to their 1997 action classic Face/Off. Director Adam Wingard was asked about the project at the premiere of his latest film, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. As per Deadline, Wingard says the action sequel is “full steam ahead”, and that the script he’s seen is amazing. However, he can’t give a precise timeline for its production, given his other in-the-works projects, plus any potential future entries in the successful Monsterverse franchise.
Although Cage‘s character seemingly dies at the end of Face/Off, the ever-busy actor is interested in the sequel, which was announced back in 2021. He spoke about it in an interview with Collider‘s Steve Weintraub last year, opining that “I think Face/Off is a sequel that lends itself to a lot of twists and turns and unpredictability. It’s almost like if you factor in the idea of offspring and Castor and Sean having children and these children grow up, then it becomes like three-dimensional chess, and then it’s not just the two, John Travolta and myself, it’s four of us ping-ponging and going at different levels, and it becomes even more complex. I think there’s a lot of fertile ground there.”
What is ‘Face/Off’?
Directed by Hong Kong action maven John Woo in his third American film, Face/Off starred Cage as freelance terrorist Castor Troy and Travolta as Sean Archer, a federal agent obsessed with bringing Troy to justice. When Troy is rendered comatose before he can reveal the location of his next attack, Archer undergoes experimental face-transplantation surgery to masquerade as Troy, masquerading as him in a secret super-prison as he tries to extract the information from Troy’s associates. Unfortunately, Troy awakens from his coma and forces the surgeons to give him Archer’s face before killing them. Now, with everyone who knew about the secret mission dead, Archer is trapped as Troy while Troy takes over Archer’s life. Soon, Archer escapes from prison, and high-octane mayhem in the John Woo manner ensues. The film also stars Joan Allen, Gina Gershon, Alessandro Nivola, Dominique Swain, and Nick Cassavetes, Harve Presnell, and Margaret Cho.
A hit upon its release, making over $245 million USD on an $80 million budget, Face/Off has become a cult classic, thanks to the wildly over-the-top performances Cage and Travolta give both as themselves and each other. In a retrospective piece, Collider‘s Harrison Chute claimed the film “obliterates the line between good and bad“.
Adam Wingard‘s Face/Off sequel has not yet set a release date.
via Collider