The plot of Colfer’s January 2020-released Highfire adult thriller novel centers on the eponymous dragon, Lord Highfire (Cage’s would-be role), who is far removed from his days as the fire-breathing scourge of the eyrie that bore his name. Indeed, now going by “Vern,” the wayward wyvern spends his days in his Louisiana swamp home, catering to an insatiable taste for vodka, smoking cigarettes lit by his own breath and expressing a perpetual appreciation for legwarmer-promoting 1983 movie Flashdance by frequently wearing a t-shirt that bears its logo. However, this existence becomes disrupted when he crosses paths with Cajun teen Everett “Squib” Moreau, who, working for a shady smuggler, witnessed his boss being murdered by a crooked cop. Consequently, Vern and Squib strike up a friendship amidst a crime-solving adventure motivated by mutual survival.
Of course, the small screen project is yet another example of star Nicolas Cage’s current cult-level ubiquity. Indeed, the former Leaving Las Vegas Best Actor Oscar winner may be known as the notoriously-broke subject of crazed-eyed meme images these days, but he’s putting in a lot of notable work. Besides headlining an immense array of modern schlock, and voicing Spider-Man Noir in animated smash Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, he recently starred in the directorial comeback of the embattled Richard Stanley in H.P. Lovecraft-adapting sci-fi horror film Color Out of Space, and notably turned heads with a crimson-soaked wanton rampage of vengeance in his starring role in 2018 film Mandy. Plus, he was recently cast to play Tiger King subject Joe Exotic in a dramatized miniseries, and will play himself, opposite The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal, in the fourth-wall-scraping thriller, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.
Highfire has yet to reveal a production or release window, but the wacky, trope-blending premise alone makes it sound like something worth the wait.
