Rumor: Nicolas Cage getting $40 million to play Anwar Sadat?
I stumbled across a story on The Earth Times site last night about Nicolas Cage being set to play Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in an Egyptian TV series. Being skeptical, I scouted around a bit and found blurbs on some Nic Cage fan sites; still, we'll just call this a rumor at this point. I actually wouldn't be surprised if the story is true. Cage has a string of diverse projects in his past, everything from producing The Life of David Gale (a death penalty opponent) to voicing a part in the animated family movie, The Ant Bully. And, of course, there's his National Treasure movies, which I love.
According to the Earth Times story, Cage will lose six kilograms to play the part of Sadat (which, if the conversion site I looked at is true, comes to about 13 lbs.) before he starts shooting the series. It also notes that he'll be paid $40 million. Wow, that's some serious cash.
The story goes on to say that Egyptian writer Anis al-Degheidy penned the series, which will start shooting in mid-2009 and be directed by Lebanese Youssef Sharaf.
Al-Degheidy has written some controversial books, including Saddam Was Not Executed, and said the TV series would be in English and also dubbed in Arabic. Last September, shows about late Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser and Syrian actress-singer Asmahan were broadcast in Egypt during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Any thoughts on this news? It seems we're seeing more of these types of projects; I've been watching House of Saddam on HBO, and it's an interesting look into a controversial figure.
I'm also kind of wondering when Nic Cage will fit this into his schedule. According to his IMDB page, he's got 19 projects on tap through 2010.

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