Cage-a-rama 2020 Guests + UK Tour

Black an white image: Nicolas Cage and stand-in Marco Kyris stand together, looking down - Cage holds tissue paper, Marco an empty tin can
Nicolas Cage and Marco Kyris on set

Matchbox Cineclub are pleased to announce Marco Kyris, Nicolas Cage’s official stand-in for over ten years, will attend our third annual Cage-a-rama film festival at Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts on 3rd, 4th & 5th January 2020 and afterwards embark on a UK-wide Cage-a-rama: Uncaged tour.

Marco, who worked with Cage on almost 20 films between 1994-2005, will join Lindsay Gibb, Toronto-based author of National Treasure: Nicolas Cage and world-leading Nicolas Cage expert, for an in-conversation event and a screening of Uncaged: A Stand-in Story at CCA Glasgow on Saturday 4th January. Kyris will also introduce several of Cage-a-rama 2020’s films across the festival weekend: Leaving Las Vegas (for which Cage won an Academy Award® for Best Actor), the first of the fan-favourite National Treasure films, and Martin Scorsese’s urban horror Bringing Out the Dead, the latter of which he will introduce alongside journalist Josh Slater-Williams (Sight & Sound, Little White Lies).

Kyris has also guest-programmed a special opening night screening of one of his favourite collaborations with Cage, Brian De Palma’s Snake Eyes, followed by a Q&A. Throughout the festival, Marco will be open to any questions about his “Cage Wage” years, and share genuine call-sheets and other Cage memorabilia from his archive – and might be persuaded to part with them if audience members pose good enough questions. Cage-a-rama’s opening night is sponsored by Drygate.

Directors Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) and Stephen Campanelli (Grand Isle) will introduce their films via specially recorded videos. Joining them are Nicolas Cage aficionados from across the globe, including Timon Singh of Bristol Bad Film Club, Torïo Garcia of the Spanish NicCagepedia, and Mike Manzi & Joey Lewandowski, the New Jersey-based hosts of the much-loved #CageClub: The Nicolas Cage Podcast.

Three images featuring Marco Kyris standing in for Nicolas Cage on film sets - The Rock, Face/Off and Con Air. (https://www.mkyris.com/)
Marco Kyris, on the sets of The Rock, Face/Off and Con Air

The subsequent Cage-a-rama 2020 UK Tour will feature a 35mm screening of Con Air at the Genesis Cinema in London on Thursday 9th January, and a 20th-anniversary screening of Gone in 60 Seconds in collaboration with Bristol Bad Film Club at Bristol Improv Theatre on Saturday 11th January. Both screenings will be accompanied by Marco Kyris’s short film, Uncaged: A Stand-In Story, and a post-screening Q&A.

Cage-a-rama 2020 highlights Cage’s relationship with directors: from big guns to young guns, from huge budgets to low ones, from his career’s early days to now. The festival features 10 films over three days, closing with the UK premiere of brand-new Nicolas Cage film Primal (2019), to be released by Lionsgate in February 2020. Sunday 5th January also sees the UK premiere of Grand Isle, which pairs Cage with Kelsey Grammer, set to be released by 101 Films. The rest of the programme features Cage classics from some of his earliest roles, in Francis Ford Coppola’s Peggy Sue Got Married and Top Gun “homage” Fire Birds, to blockbuster sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets and a midnight screening of Zandalee, his erotic thriller co-starring Judge Reinhold.


Cage-a-rama 2020 Weekend and Day Passes and individual tickets are on sale via Matchbox Cineclub’s online shop. Tickets for Con Air in London are available via Genesis Cinema’s website (genesiscinema.co.uk) and tickets for Gone in 60 Seconds can be purchased via Bristol Improv Theatre (improvtheatre.co.uk).

For the first time, the entire Glasgow Cage-a-rama programme will be open-captioned for D/deaf audiences, and tickets for each film are priced on a sliding scale, £0-8, with reference to our three-tiered guide, so audience members decide what to pay.

Keep up-to-date via the Cage-a-rama 2020 Facebook event

Poster for Cage-a-rama 2020, feauring an illustration of Nicolas Cage climbing Glasgow Cathedral a la King Kong (https://veronavarro.com/)
Illustration by Vero Navarro

Cage-a-rama 2: Premieres, Guests and Going Full Cage

Matchbox Cineclub present the UK premiere of Nicolas Cage’s newest film, Between Worlds, with director Maria Pulera in attendance

Between Worlds
Nicolas Cage in Between Worlds (Maria Pulera, 2018)

Between Worlds is the film where Nicolas Cage makes love to women while reading aloud from a book entitled “Memories by Nicolas Cage”. That’s to say, it’s the perfect closing film for Cage-a-rama 2: Cage Uncaged, our second annual Nicolas Cage film festival. We’re delighted to welcome writer-director-producer Maria Pulera to present her film at Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow, on Sunday 6th January, 2019.

Nicolas Cage is Joe, a man obsessed by the death of his wife and daughter. At a way station on a lonely highway, Joe meets Julie (Franka Potente), a spiritually gifted woman who enlists him in a desperate attempt to recover the lost soul of her comatose daughter, Billie (Penelope Mitchell).

The full Cage-a-rama 2: Cage Uncaged film programme features Mandy, Army of One, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, The Wicker ManMom and Dad, Zandalee, Vampire’s Kiss, Wild At Heart and Between Worlds.

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Confirmed guests/contributors include: Maria Conchita Alonso (actor, Vampire’s Kiss, The Running Man, Predator 2), Skype Q&A; Lindsay Gibb (author, National Treasure: Nicolas Cage), video essay premiere; Barry Gifford (author, Wild At Heart, screenwriter, Lost Highway, Hotel Room), pre-recorded interview; Tara Judah (Bristol’s Watershed) and Ti Singh (Bristol Bad Film Club), Going Full CageCasper Kelly (Too Many Cooks) and Shane Morton (Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell), creators of Mandy‘s Cheddar Goblin sequence, Skype Q&A; Maria Pulera (director, Between Worlds), live Q&A; Brian Taylor (director, Mom and Dad, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Crank), Skype Q&A.

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Film experts Tara Judah and Ti Singh bring their sell-out Going Full Cage live event from Bristol’s Watershed on Saturday 5th January. Canadian Cage academician Lindsay Gibb will also premiere a brand-new and exclusive video essay at the festival.

With 11 Nicolas Cage films and events over three days, a counter-Cage cool-off area will be provided for those who need a break – this VHS “Hanks-a-rama” station will loop the reassuring presence of America’s Dad Tom Hanks throughout the festival weekend.

Local brewers Innis and Gunn sponsor Cage-a-rama for the first time this year. The annual Nicolas Cage Birthday Quiz will run on Sunday 6th, with prizes provided by Arrow Video and a huge pile of Cage merchandise up for grabs. A wide range of Cage-related publications and merchandise will also be on sale in the festival pop-up shop.

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Cage-a-rama weekend pass holders get a personalised Blockbuster-style membership card. All tickets are on sale via our online store: matchboxcineclub.bigcartel.com.


Cage-a-rama 2: Cage Uncaged takes place Friday 4th to Sunday 6th January 2019 at Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow.

Keep up-to-date with the Facebook event page here.