Well, we all just got Cage'd. Just when you though the career of Nicolas Cage couldn't possibly get more bizarre or outlandish, there comes this news, which confirms he's fully gone off the reservation or he needs a new agent.
Cage is getting set to star in "Left Behind," an adaptation of the apocalyptic Christian-themed books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, that are best known for being adapted in a hilariously terrible, but successful trilogy starring Kirk Cameron. Savvy folks with a good memory will remember this project has been in the works since last year, with Cloud Ten Pictures, the production company that financed the first three ‘Left Behind’ pictures (one theatrical, two straight to DVD) financing the $15 million picture. This reboot will find Cage among a group of survivors after the Rapture. Presumably the situation will be worse than facing the bees.
Needless this say, this sounds unbearably awful, but the Christian market is a strong one and growing, even if the quality of the films presented to them are borderline amateur for the most part. The only silver lining we could possibly see is if Kirk Cameron comes back too giving us the Cage/Cameron team-up we never knew we wanted, but otherwise, the only thing left behind after this will be Cage's career. Paul Lalonde the writer/producer of the first batch of "Left Behind" movies will once again do those duties here, while stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong will direct. Production will begin next spring, with a theatrical release later in the year by Samuel Goldwyn. Will it top "The Wicker Man" as future, YouTube ready camp classic? God willing. [Variety]
CALLING ALL CHRISTIAN WOMEN – Tired of the war on women? Ready to flex your beautiful muscles? You can show your power after you Google "The Male-Dominated Pretrib Rapture Cabal" (on Joe Ortiz's blog dated Mar. 6)!
Kevin, why are you so hateful? Why do you just assume it will be awful? Maybe you aren't a believer in Christ, I dont know. But that shouldn't cause you to write such a damning review.
/ Spotted the following on the web that all "fly-away" rapture folks may find intriguing. /
Pretrib Rapture Pride
Pretrib rapture promoters like Thomas Ice give the impression they know more than the early Church Fathers, the Reformers, the greatest Greek New Testament scholars including those who produced the KJV Bible, the founders of their favorite Bible schools, and even their own mentors!
Ice's mentor, Dallas Sem. president John Walvoord, couldn't find anyone holding to pretrib before 1830 – and Walvoord called John Darby and his Brethren followers "the early pretribulationists" (RQ, pp. 160-62). Ice belittles Walvoord and claims that several pre-1830 persons, including "Pseudo-Ephraem" and a "Rev. Morgan Edwards," taught a pretrib rapture. Even though the first one viewed Antichrist's arrival as the only "imminent" event, Ice (and Grant Jeffrey) audaciously claim he expected an "imminent" pretrib rapture! And Ice (and John Bray) have covered up Edwards' historicism which made a pretrib rapture impossible! Google historian Dave MacPherson's "Deceiving and Being Deceived" for documentation on these and similar historical distortions.
The same pretrib defenders, when combing ancient books, deviously read "pretrib" into phrases like "before Armageddon," "before the final conflagration," and "escape all these things"!
BTW, the KJV translators' other writings found in London's famed British Library (where MacPherson has researched) don't have even a hint of pretrib rapturism. Is it possible that Ice etc. have found pretrib "proof" in the KJV that its translators never found?
Pretrib merchandisers like Ice claim that nothing is better pretrib proof than Rev. 3:10. They also cover up "Famous Rapture Watchers" (on Google) which shows how the greatest Greek NT scholars of all time interpreted it.
Pretrib didn't flourish in America much before the 1909 Scofield Bible which has pretribby "explanatory notes" in its margins. Not seen in the margins was jailed forger Scofield's criminal record throughout his life that David Lutzweiler has documented in his recent book "The Praise of Folly" which is available online.
Biola University's doctrinal statement says Christ's return is "premillennial" and "before the Tribulation." Although universities stand for "academic freedom," Biola has added these narrow, restrictive phrases – non-essentials the founders purposely didn't include in their original doctrinal statement when Biola was just a small Bible institute! And other Christian schools have also belittled their founders.
Ice, BTW, has a "Ph.D" issued by a tiny Texas school that wasn't authorized to issue degrees! Ice now says that he's working on another "Ph.D" via the University of Wales in Britain. For light on the degrees of Ice's scholarliness, Google "Bogus degree scandal prompts calls to wind up University of Wales," "Thomas Ice (Bloopers)," "be careful in polemics – Peripatetic Learning," and "Walvoord Melts Ice." Also Google "Thomas Ice (Hired Gun)" – featured by media luminary Joe Ortiz on his Jan. 30, 2013 "End Times Passover" blog.
Other fascinating Google articles include "The Unoriginal John Darby," "X-raying Margaret," "Edward Irving in Unnerving," "Pretrib Rapture Politics," "Pretrib Rapture Secrets," "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty," "Pretrib Hypocrisy," "Pretrib Rapture Secrecy," and "Roots of Warlike Christian Zionism" – most from the author of "The Rapture Plot," the most accurate documentation on pretrib rapture history.
Can anyone guess who the last proud pretrib rapture holdout will be?
Left behind movie
PRETRIB RAPTURE VETTING
"If politicians need vetting, so do evangelical 'rapture' promoters who make millions palming off a 19th century fantasy as Bible fact – a fantasy that's anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, and anti-Muslim!"
This is what journalist/historian Dave MacPherson began thinking in 1968.
Since then he's been vetting those who've been trafficking in what is known theologically as the "pretribulation rapture" – everyone from John Darby to John Walvoord and John Hagee.
To see just a scrap of MacPherson's voluminous "library" of vetting, Google "The Unoriginal John Darby," "Pretrib Rapture Diehards," "X-Raying Margaret," "Edward Irving is Unnerving," "Walvoord Melts Ice," "Thomas Ice (Bloopers)," "LaHaye's Temperament," "Pretrib Hypocrisy," "Appendix F: Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Pretrib Rapture Secrets," "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty," and "Pretrib Rapture Politics" (anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, and anti-Muslim!).
Or better yet, get his 300-page nonfiction book "The Rapture Plot" (see Armageddon Books) – a veritable "internet" on the long hidden history of this 182-year-old, fringe-British-invented pretrib rapture craze!
BTW, many of MacPherson's articles are on the "End Times Passover" blog owned by Southern California media figure Joe Ortiz.
Stevo, have you never seen any movies based upon the story of the ten commandments? Or have your children not ever watched any Veggie Tale bible story adaptations? Please tell me the difference. I mean honestly, the majority of people who would go see this movie ARE Christians! Every Christian wonders about the end times and I think it's kind of exciting to see what those TWO mens' interpretation is. Now, for a Christian to put all their stock in that interpretation would be a mistake. I don't find the books to be sacrilegious and don't see them as any authority on the rapture or tribulation. This is why the homosexual agenda is being so well-pushed In our society. MWhen one of their own does something, all their supporters rally around them. We are such hypocrites! And if you can tell me that you've never watched pornography, then I'll agree with you.
I second everything Stevo just said.
I'm an evangelical Christian, and I am most certainly NOT a fan of the 'Left Behind' books or movie adaptations – past or future – the events depicted in the novels are but one person's interpretations of future events… events that we know too little actual specifics about at this point (the Bible only gives us a broad overview), and events that are too important and downright somber to be exploited for mass entertainment purposes (even if the authors' motivations were honorable in their intent). I sincerely hope they drop this plan and leave the whole subjects of the Rapture and the Great Tribulation where they belong; in God's sovereign hands and ultimate providence, 'nuff said.
Wow! Too good to be true. Nicolas Cage in a Left Behind reboot with a TV budget? This sounds like an April Fool's joke, can't wait for the DVD.