Nicolas Cage has played a variety of characters throughout his successful career in film, but his upcoming role in Joe will be something entirely new, according to director David Gordon Green.
"This movie's unlike anything [Cage] has ever done," Green told The Huffington Post . "It's a very dark, salty Southern tale."
Joe is a film based on the novel of the same name by Larry Brown, and will follow the filmic style of Green’s direction. The director’s previous projects include hits like Pineapple Express and television series Eastbound & Down . The story follows a man named Joe who heads a crew of tree poisoners working for a lumber company. The key relationship in the film is between Joe and a teenage boy who comes to work in the crew.
"All of the big Nic Cage fans of the world I think are going go bananas," Green said of the expected reaction to the “brutal” character Joe. "I mean, the intimacy of this and the eccentric qualities of this really humanizes an amazing sequence of events in this tree poisoner's life."
Though it is clear that the “very grim” film will be a vast departure from Cage’s more recent box office bombs, Green says the actor impressed him with his willingness to step outside his comfort zone.
"He's been all over the place. He's taken a lot of journeys as an actor and I really respect that," the director praised. "It's fun. He takes chances every time."
A release date for Joe has not been revealed, but in the meantime, check out director David Gordon Green’s full interview with HuffPost Live below:
Image: NBC