HOLLYWOOD -- Something happened to Nicolas Cage in the mid-'90s.
Having already made the transition to rom-com leading man with the likes of Moonstruck and Honeymoon in Vegas, the Oscar-winning (for Leaving Las Vegas) indie film wild child would take a career leap few predicted.
He became a bona fide superstar action hero.
His first outing for maestro blockbuster producer Jerry Bruckheimer, 1996's The Rock, would yield Cage's first triple-digit gross ($134 million in North America alone) and forge the template for several high-octane collaborations to follow, including Con Air and Face/Off.
Cage's trademark intensity proved to be a perfect match for Bruckheimer's over-the-top, Dolby-boosted ballistics.
For a while there, you couldn't picture Cage in a film without expecting him to have to outrun a fireball at any given moment.
Cage's Midas touch at the box office would take a downward turn at the start of the new millennium, but bounced back nicely by 2004, unearthing spectacular numbers for Bruckheimer's National Treasure ($173 million domestically), as well as the surprise smash, Ghost Rider.
Along with that rebound came a healthy asking price, with Cage regularly commanding as much as $20 million a picture for the studio stuff.
That was then. Over the past half-a-year, Cage has starred in three duds in a row -- last summer's costly Bruckheimer clunker The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and, more recently, Season of the Witch (which didn't even crack the $25-million mark) and Drive Angry (a sputtering $10 million to date).
Even by Cage's historically quirky picks, his recent output might look more like shameless cash grabs than interesting career choices.
And that's pretty much the case.
A notoriously out-of-control spender, Cage found himself having to unload his numerous castles and mansions last year when, compounding an already messy financial situation, the IRS came after Cage for more than $13 million in unpaid taxes.
As a result he had pretty much been taking anything thrown his way since, with rapidly diminishing results where his once mighty marquee value was concerned.
So the burning question is, can this career be saved?
History has shown that the reigns of even the most bankable of Hollywood stars aren't forever -- and, given just a few missteps, you can go from white hot to, sorry Nic, Gone in Sixty Seconds.
In Cage's case, now that he appears to have addressed those debts to the tax man, his future as a box-office commodity will depend entirely on his next few moves.
While something like Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (due in theatres next February) is a no-brainer, consideration needs to be given to the fact that, at 47, Cage still might be Wild at Heart, but he needs to find roles deemed more age appropriate.
Interestingly, he's got a couple in the can that would seem to address the issue.
Both The Hungry Rabbit Jumps, a vengeance thriller with January Jones, and Trespass, a crime thriller co-starring Nicole Kidman, sound a lot like the kinds of movies that have recently turned 58-year-old Liam Neeson into a credible action star.
Of course, Neeson's personal tragedy provides extra incentive for wanting to root for the guy, but we've still got your back, too, Nic Cage.
Just hopefully without a blazing fireball sneaking up on it.
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