This has been quite the week for me to wish Nicolas Cage still made good movies. Besides crying over the fact that his latest sci-fi action thriller involving disaster prophesy was #1 at the box office despite being panned by critics, some of my unrelated experiences over the past seven days have coincidentally included the following: watching Wild at Heart for the first time; learning from locals that Moonstruck was partly shot in my neighborhood; discussing, at a party, not only the merits of The Rock, but also its qualifications for inclusion in the Criterion catalog. I’m now thinking I should stay home tonight and watch a marathon of Raising Arizona, Face/Off and Adaptation.

Or, maybe I can just lay back and think about how Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is going to be Cage’s return to quality. I know, I know, those of you who didn’t stop reading at my profession of love for The Rock are now wondering if I’m crazy. “Certainly this movie is going to be terrible,” you’re saying to yourself (as you plan your derisive comment). And besides, Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant “remake” shall be his next good film. Well, maybe, but after seeing the new production photos from Apprentice circulating the net (originating at JustJared), I’m prophesizing that the Fantasia-inspired film will be the Moonstruck to Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans‘ Raising Arizona, or the Face/Off to Lieutenant’s Con Air, or the Adaptation to Lieutenant’s Windtalkers. Perhaps I am soiling my reputation by confessing my overextending appreciation of Cage’s career, but you have to respect a guy who allows himself to look and be so ridiculous for his art.

The rest of the film blogosphere’s responses to the photos after the jump:

• As usual, Dan Hopper at Best Week Ever has the best jokes: “…on the set of his new movie Something Surely Worth Seing Dangerous. He’s about to change out of his normal clothes and hairpiece and into his costume (zuhhhh-zinggg!!!).”
• Pajiba headlines that this could be Cage’s “Most Hilarious Role Ever.” Let’s hope so.
• Mark at I Watch Stuff compares the look to WWE wrestler The Undertaker and Sega video game character Chakan: The Forever Man.
• Cinematical’s Elisabeth Rappe sees Cage instead as “apparently ripping his look off Hugh Jackman’s Gabriel Van Helsing” in the site’s “LOL of the Day” post. “The only thing that has me curious about this movie,” she adds, “is how Baruchel ends up as his apprentice. Because if I was approached by a ‘magician’ who looked like that, I’d run screaming the other way.”
• Rob Bricken at Topless Robot agrees with Rappe’s comparison but seems a tad more hopeful of the film:
  

  I admit, despite my utter hatred and fear of Jerry Bruckheimer movies, I did really enjoy the first Pirates of the Carribbean movie. And I love Fantasia, so I’ll — very regretfully — be giving this a shot. But the fact that Cage is dressed exactly like Hugh Jackman in Van Helsing means I probably won’t be watching sober.

• Jeremy at We Are Movie Geeks also agrees: “Looks like Cage is trying out for ‘Van Helsing 2.’”
• Mike Sampson at JoBlo.com sees Cage more as a “geriatric Criss Angel” and tells us how to respect this film:
  

  if I hear any “raping my childhood” crap, I’m gonna reach through the computer screen and smack you across the head. This movie has nothing to do with the Mickey Mouse cartoon. The story is a German poem written by Goethe. Get that in your head now and you’ll be OK.

• Somehow Josh Radde at Film School Rejects thinks Cage “appears to be doing his best Kris Kristofferson,” before once again concentrating on the actor’s hair:
  

  Add this hairdo to the pretty amazing collection of Cage ‘Dos so far. In fact, Rotten Tomatoes created a game linking a pic of his hair to the movie it appears in and it’ll surprise you how many twisted coifs this man has sported over the years.

• The typically optimistic Alex Billington of FirstShowing.net argues on Cage’s behalf:
  

  I would say, don’t be so quick to judge these and Cage’s new hairdo and leather outfit, but I’m sure you’ve already made up your mind. I don’t know if these will help Cage any more, or potentially ruin him entirely again, but honestly, I’m still looking forward to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

• And Sean at FilmDrunk also defends the powers of Cage, at least as box office gold: “In all seriousness though, you can make fun of Nicolas Cage all you want, but if the past has taught us anything it is that America loves his movies. National Treasure + Harry Potter = $$$.”

In additional Nic Cage-is-nuts bloggery from today:

• Graeme McMillan at io9 shares the actor’s recent statements regarding his preference for science fiction, abandonment of gratuitous violence and overall desire to go more “into the abstract”:
  

  Does this mean that Cage sees science fiction as a gateway drug to take audiences into indulgently abstract movies? I hope so, if only because I’d love to see just how abstract the man behind Ghost Rider, Bangkok Dangerous and Adaptation can get when he puts his mind to it.