Deadline is reporting that Nicolas Cage has signed on to voice a vodka-drinking dragon in Highfire, a TV series adaptation of Artemis Fowl author Eion Colfer’s fantasy novel which is said to be in the vein of “Pete’s Dragon meets True Detective“. Here’s the logline:
Once upon a time, dragons ruled the earth and Lord Highfire ruled the dragons from his eyrie. But this is not once upon a time, this is now, and now all Lord Highfire rules is his shack in Louisiana’s Honey Island Swamp. Highfire has become plain old ‘Vern’ and, by day, he hides out among the alligators, watches cable-TV and drinks obscene amounts of vodka to pass the time. It isn’t much of a life but he’s alive to live it, and Vern is prepared do whatever it takes – even if its violent – to preserve his own hide. When Vern’s world collides with a human teen named Squib, who becomes mixed up in some trouble while running booze for the local mob, their mutual struggle for survival becomes entangled in the most unlikely of friendships.
Cage is set to voice the character of Highfire/Vern, a CG-creation in an otherwise live-action series which is described as “a gritty crime-thriller with doses of magical realism”, while Davey Holmes (Get Shorty) is writing and executive producing.
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Highfire joins an ever-packed slate for Cage, whose upcoming roles include Joe Exotic in a scripted miniseries based upon Netflix’s Tiger King and a heightened version of himself in the action comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Next up however is Willy’s Wonderland, a horror where he portrays a janitor battling animatronic characters at a theme park.
