Nicolas Cage To Star in Horror Film About the Childhood of Jesus

Academy Award-winning actor Nicolas Cage is set to star in the film “The Carpenter’s Son,” which is described as a “dark story” about the childhood of Jesus.

The film is scheduled to start shooting this summer and will be directed by Lofty Nathan. Cage will star as “the Carpenter,” assumed to be Joseph, Noah Jupe (“A Quiet Place, “Honey Boy”) will play “the Boy,” assumed to be Jesus, and FKA twigs (“Honey Boy”) will play “the Mother,” assumed to be Mary.

The 60-year-old Cage has appeared in more than 100 films over the course of his career, including his Oscar-winning performance for “Leaving Las Vegas” in 1996, “National Treasure,” “Con Air,” “Face/Off,” “The Rock,” “The Family Man,” “Pig,” “Dream Scenario,” and “Left Behind.”

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According to Deadline, “The Carpenter’s Son” tells the “dark story of a family hiding out in Roman Egypt” and is inspired by the “Infancy Gospel of Thomas“—a second century writing about Jesus’ early years that Christians do not accept at authoritative.

In the film, the Boy rebels against his family after doubting who he is and discovering he has powers. “As he exercises his own power, the Boy and his family become the target of horrors, natural and divine,” Deadline writes.

While giving an interview for his 2014 biblical rapture film “Left Behind,” Cage said the “heart of the movie” for him was “family.”

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“It’s about owning our mistakes and getting back to what is genuinely valuable,” he said. “And I think people can respond to that.”

“Left Behind” is based on Tim LaHaye’s and Jerry B. Jenkins’ 1995 best-selling novel of the same name. The fictional end times book focuses on the story of Rayford Steele, the character Cage portrays in the film, whose wife and son are raptured into heaven along with many others.