Renfield is the latest horror movie from Universal to feature Dracula, and there are several other classic monsters Nicolas Cage could play after chewing the scenery in the role. Cage lends support to Nicholas Hoult's Renfield, a hapless minion to the Prince of Darkness for almost a hundred years and desperate to get out from under the dark shadow of his demanding boss. While waiting for Dracula to return to his full powers following a near-fatal slaying, Renfield teams up with a local New Orleans police officer (Awkwafina) to destroy him once and for all and finally get the normal life he so desperately wants.
Hoult plays Renfield with a sputtering charm, but Cage truly makes a feast of The Count, gliding through each scene with predatory grace and charm. He strikes a fine balance between being charismatic and narcissistic; while it's easy to see why Renfield was mesmerized by him early in their partnership, it's also clear why he wants to escape his clutches after suffering abusive language that would fill someone like Renfield with self-doubt. The original Universal Monsters universe reused actors like Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff across movies from the '30s to the '50s, setting a precedent for Cage to have fun with these roles in a different project.
6 Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde
The tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which took inspiration from Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, goes all the way back to 1913 before The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated had shortened its name to Universal Studios. The 27-minute silent horror film starred King Baggot in the role of both Jekyll and Hyde, with the former being a noble person by day and the criminally nefarious Mr. Hyde by night. Universal's Dark Universe recently tried to resurrect this role with Russell Crowe playing Dr. Jekyll and his feral alter-ego in Tom Cruise's The Mummy, but Crowe was oddly constrained.
With an emphasis on too much realism and edginess, Crowe wasn't able to fully explore the role to the fullest extent of its complexities. This approach took away from what could have inherently been a very meaty part with an examination of the duality of human nature. Given the opportunity to play two roles, Cage could channel the understated and obsessive qualities he brought to Pig or Joe for Dr. Jekyll, while also going fully unhinged for Mr. Hyde, as he's done so memorably in Face/Off and Mandy.
5 The Wolf Man
After the success of Dracula and The Mummy, The Wolf Man in 1941 became the next terrifying creature to launch a franchise, not to mention have a large influence on Hollywood's depiction of werewolves. The story of the troubled heir played by Lon Chaney Jr. turned into a wolfman by a Romani curse was considered a contemporary blockbuster, with impressive visual effects (especially during the transformation) for its day. A 2010 version of The Wolf Man starring Benicio del Toro, Emily Blunt, and Anthony Hopkins failed to ignite a passion for the Universal Monster with poor pacing and a lack of urgency.
Not only does Cage want to play this Universal classic monster, but he would be able to match the sympathy brought to the role by Lon Chaney Jr. Lord Talbot's character is a tragic hero who feels hopeless every time he transforms into a beast and threatens those he loves, and Cage knows how to convey futility and despair in moves like City of Angels and Leaving Las Vegas. With Cage in the role, he could do justice to a Universal Monster who hasn't been updated properly in decades.
4 The Phantom Of The Opera
Prior to Andrew Lloyd Webber's popular musical, The Phantom of the Opera was a silent horror movie made by Universal Studios in 1925 and then remade in 1943. Based on the novel by Gaston Leroux, both versions tell the tale of a disfigured man lurking in the Paris Opera House, obsessing over its leading soprano, Christine Daaé, and later goes from helping her career to killing anyone who shows an interest in her. In the first version, The Phantom is played by Lon Chaney, whose son would star in The Wolf Man, and in the second, The Phantom is played by Claude Rains, who played Chaney's father in that film.
Nicolas Cage has actually sung opera before over the opening credits of The Family Man and recently sang a snippet of the musical Jesus Christ Super Star while appearing on Stephen Colbert. Along with his vocal talents, he would be able to showcase The Phantom's anguish, because the best Nicolas Cage movies have explored the tumultuous inner turmoil of the human condition. Given that other than Dario Argento's gorier version and the 2004 musical film there hasn't been a recent remake of The Phantom of the Opera that's dramatic, Cage could really get creative with the role.
3 Frankenstein’s Monster
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one of the most well-known horror stories of all time, not to mention a beautiful piece of classic literature. Universal Studios turned it into a film in 1931, and the horrifying tale of a mad scientist named Victor Frankenstein reanimating a creature made from pieces of human corpses became a sensation that launched several sequels. Curious fans have already watched Renfield to see how Nicolas Cage's Dracula compares to Bela Lugosi's, and next to Lugosi's Count, Boris Karloff's version of Frankenstein's creature is one of the most well-known of all the Universal movie monsters.
From Adaptation to Wild at Heart, Cage's filmography is full of misunderstood and eccentric characters just trying to exist in a world that doesn't appreciate their perspective. Recently in Willy's Wonderland, Cage proved how much emotion he could convey without dialogue, making the fact that Frankenstein's monster rarely speaks a complete non-issue. Outcasts have always been Cage's strength, and there's no doubt he would bring compassion, sympathy, and complexity to the role of Frankenstein's monster.
2 The Mummy
After the success of Bela Lugosi's Dracula, The Mummy debuted the next year with Boris Karloff as Imhotep, the priest cursed for trying to resurrect his lover Ankh-su-namun. To capitalize on the popularity of Lugosi's film, the movie even used the same theme music from "Swan Lake," and started the first iteration of the Universal Monster universe. It was remade successfully in a 1999 version starring Brendan Fraser, but failed at the box office in 2017 when it was turned into a Tom Cruise action movie, making it a prime horror film to reimagine.
Not only has Nicolas Cage starred in the National Treasure movies which deal with ancient artifacts and buried treasure, been he's also been very vocal about his love of Ancient Egypt (he currently owns a mausoleum in the shape of a pyramid in his former home of New Orleans). Cage could also highlight the tragedy and despair of so many of the Universal Monsters with Imhotep's character. While the mummy will stop at nothing to be reunited with his love, his loss is a very relatable one, and makes him one of Universal's more sympathetic villains.
1 The Creature From The Black Lagoon
One of Universal Studios' most iconic monsters has to be the amphibious humanoid from The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Not only was it one of the company's most successful films, but it also inspired countless other popular movies, including Guillermo del Toro's Best Picture winner The Shape of Water, which acts as a sequel in spirit to the 1954 film and focuses on a woman who falls in love with the creature after the scientists capture it for research purposes. It launched several sequels but has never been remade as a quality horror movie.
Given that Cage sat in hours of makeup to be transformed into Dracula for Renfield, he would have no problem morphing into The Creature with a little latex and prosthetics. Not only that but he's starred in movies like Ghost Rider, so doing motion capture and other visual effects for a supernatural entity wouldn't be daunting. The primal physicality of The Creature would allow him to act using other skills, particularly to do with body language, that would reveal even more of his range.