Joel Schumacher must have the world’s luckiest rabbit foot. How else do you explain one of Hollywood’s most generic, often witless filmmakers working not only consistently but prolifically? His last film, “Blood Creek,” was dumped into dollar theaters ceremoniously, and the buzz is dire on his latest, the drug drama “Twelve.” This coming on the heels of the disastrous “The Number 23” and we wonder just how Schumacher has avoided going straight-to-DVD by now.
Schumacher has now resurfaced on “Trespass,” a thriller that has Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman attached to star. The action/adventure film would find the duo playing “a husband and wife taken hostage by four brutal perpetrators seeking easy cash. Complications ensue amid the unexpected discovery of betrayal and deception.” Nu Image/Millenium Films is looking to start production in August.
Nu Image/Millennium Films don’t particularly have the greatest rep. The bulk of the company’s output are action pictures made on shoestring budgets in far-off places like Bulgaria. Their offerings are cheap and quick, and while they were responsible for last year’s “The Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans” they’ve also attained a reputation of paying huge fees for stars and trapping them in mundane TV-movie-of-the-week plots. Look no further than “Righteous Kill,” “16 Blocks” and “88 Minutes.” They have high hopes for their big summer release “The Expendables,” but they’re a company so questionable even Steven Seagal won’t work with them.
That won’t stop workaholic Cage, of course. This will be his fourth collaboration with Nu Image following “Lieutenant,” “The Wicker Man” and the upcoming “Drive Angry.” Cage will next be seen in the summer blockbuster “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” with “Season Of The Witch” and the vigilante drama “The Hungry Rabbit Jumps” in the can and awaiting release. After shooting “Trespass,” he’ll likely jump into “Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance” and, somewhere down the line, a third “National Treasure.” Kidman has John Cameron Mitchell’s “Rabbit Hole” coming up before she’s seem slumming it with Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Heidi Montag and Nick Swarsdon in “Just Go With It.”
