After signing on to lead a Joe Exotic series for CBS Television Studios earlier this year, Nicolas Cage has expanded his roster of upcoming TV projects as he has signed on to star in and produce Amazon’s series adaptation of Eoin Colfer’s Highfire, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Published in January, the story is set in a universe in which dragons used to rule the Earth and Lord Highfire ruled over them, but now he lives in a shack on the isolated Honey Island Swamp and goes by the name “Vern,” spending his days hiding out among the alligators, watching cable TV and drinking vodka. He finds his life uprooted when he gets mixed up with Squib, a teenager involved in running booze for the local mob, and their mutual struggle to survive leads to an unlikely friendship.
The series is being adapted by Davey Holmes (Epix’s Get Shorty, Shameless), who will also executive produce the project alongside Cage and Andrew Mittman of 1.21 via an exclusive production deal at MGM/UA Television, where the project is set.
Click here to purchase Colfer’s novel!
Highfire marks the latest adaptation of a work in Colfer’s bibiliography, with this past June seeing the long-in-development Artemis Fowl adaptation finally hit Disney+ with Kenneth Branagh (Death on the Nile) behind the camera and Ferdia Shaw in the titular role, though the film opened to largely negative reviews from critics and fans alike and has seemingly shut down the possibility of sequels.
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The series also marks the second TV project the 56-year-old Oscar winner has attached himself to, with this past May bringing word that he would star as the notorious Tiger King Joe Exotic in a scripted series for CBSTV and Imagine Television, while also currently preparing for his most insane film project yet, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, in which he will play multiple versions of himself.
