Cage-a-rama announces 2020 programme

Matchbox Cineclub's annual love letter to Nicolas Cage returns with a new lineup of Cage movies, including two UK premieres

Article by Jamie Dunn | 31 Oct 2019
  • Primal

Judging from his eclectic CV, it’s easy to assume Nicolas Cage has never said no to a script. Thanks to this prolific output, Cage-a-rama – Glasgow’s annual celebration of Cage's oeuvre – will be with us for a while yet. Organised by Matchbox Cineclub, Cage-a-rama 2020 features ten films over three days (3-5 Jan), including two UK premieres.

The festival will come to a close with Primal, which sees Cage play a big game hunter who has to utilise all his hunting skills when a deadly assassin being held prisoner on the cargo trip he’s travelling on breaks free. Also premiering at Cage-a-rama is the similarly ridiculous-sounding Grand Isle, a thriller that sees Cage facing off against Kelsey Grammer (aka Frasier), who plays a detective investigating Cage’s trigger-happy ex-Marine.

There are also plenty of classic Cage films planned, including one of his earliest roles in Francis Ford Coppola’s Peggy Sue Got Married, and the movie that bagged him his Best Actor Oscar, Leaving Las Vegas. There’s also a chance to see him in Martin Scorsese’s perennially underrated Bringing Out the Dead.

It’s not all Oscar-winning performances and working with Marvel-hating New Hollywood icons, though. There are plenty of less reputable Cage films in the Cage-a-rama programme too, like blatant Top Gun ripoff Fire Birds, his zany National Treasure films and a midnight screening of Zandalee, his little-seen erotic thriller in which Cage plays an artist who inserts himself in the life of his poet buddy (Judge Reinhold).

And for the first time, the entire Cage-a-rama programme will be open-captioned for deaf audiences and tickets for each film are priced on a sliding scale, £0-8, with reference to a three-tiered guide (bit.ly/slidingscaleguide).

Cage-a-rama’s bonus content and full guest line-up will be announced in late November.


Weekend and day passes are on sale via Matchbox Cineclub’s online store, and individual tickets are also on sale now