Nicolas Cage Explains the One Thing His Bloody Insane Movie ‘Mandy’ Has in Common with ‘Raising Arizona’ — Sundance

One of the wildest movies of Sundance 2018 is Panos Cosmatos’ “Mandy.” Nicolas Cage has an idea of why for the latest supercharged revenge film from the “Beyond the Black Rainbow” director holds together among the chaos.

“It happens when there aren’t too many cooks in the kitchen, when you don’t have producers from the studios — the suits, if you will — breathing down your neck,” Cage said at the IndieWire Sundance Studio presented by Dropbox. “When they get in the middle of it, all the oxygen goes out of the room.”

Cosmatos explained that, for him, even with the 1983-infused, supernatural mayhem of “Mandy,” he’s still making his own version of a movie shot on Super 8 camera. Cage likened the feeling of the set to what it was like working with Joel and Ethan Coen on “Raising Arizona.”

“The Super 8 feeling is when you are a child and you’re in your backyard and you’ve got that Super 8 camera and you’re making a movie for no other reason than you love the movie you’re making. You’re not trying to sell tickets, you’re not trying to make dollars, you’re not trying to get an Oscar. You’re just making the movie for the love of the movie,” Cage said.

“Mandy,” which also stars Andrea Riseborough and Linus Roache, is playing as part of Sundance’s Midnight section.

IndieWire will be speaking with creators at our studio throughout the opening weekend of Sundance 2018. For more of our coverage of this year’s festival, see our annual Sundance Bible. 

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