‘Prisoners of the Ghostland’ Review: Nicolas Cage Gets Wild in This Heavily Stylized Genre Mashup [Sundance 2021]

Posted on Monday, February 1st, 2021 by Ben Pearson

Think back to your time in elementary school. Think about that one kid in your class who snorted Pixie Stix, constantly drank way too much soda, ran circles around everyone else at recess, and maybe even inspired some awe at his seemingly boundless amounts of energy. That kid’s actions were always so far removed from the traditional behavior of you and your peers that he may as well have been an alien, dropped into your school as some sort of bizarre social experiment.

If that kid were a movie, he’d be Prisoners of the Ghostland, filmmaker Sion Sono‘s unhinged new genre mashup which combines elements of classic westerns, samurai movies, John Carpenter’s Escape From New York, Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle, George Miller’s Mad Max, and more. This spastic burst of cinematic energy is the type of film that gleefully embraces the knowledge that it will gain absolutely zero traction outside the midnight movie crowd. But while there are a couple of Nicolas Cage freakout scenes, the rest of Prisoners of the Ghostland may end up being a little too cryptic for casual genre fans looking to kick back and have a good time.
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‘Prisoners of the Ghostland’ With Nicolas Cage Picked Up by RLJE Films Ahead of Sundance Premiere

Posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2021 by Chris Evangelista

Prisoners of the Ghostland, the latest from filmmaker Sion Sono, is headed to this year’s Sundance Film Festival in a few days – and now it’s found distribution, too. RLJE Films has snapped-up the US rights to the movie, which stars human meme Nicolas Cage as a bank robber. When the project was first announced, Cage himself said: “It might be the wildest movie I’ve ever made, and that’s saying something.” RLJE has distributed recent Cage titles like Mandy and Color Out of Space.

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Imogen Poots Joins Nicolas Cage in ‘Prisoners of the Ghostland’ Cast Following News that Director Sion Sono Suffered a Heart Attack

Posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2019 by Chris Evangelista

Nicolas Cage recently described his upcoming film Prisoners of the Ghostland as the “wildest movie” he’s ever made, and that’s saying something. The film teams him with legendary Japanese filmmaker Sion Sono, director of Why Don’t You Play in Hell? and Suicide Club. Now we have two updates on the project, one good, one bad.

First, the good: Green Room‘s Imogen Poots is joining the cast. Now the bad news: Sion Sono has apparently suffered a heart attack. But reports indicate he’s doing well, and is not in any critical danger. So I guess that’s good news after all.

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