Written by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub
Earlier this morning I attended a press conference with Nicolas Cage for his upcoming action/thriller “Knowing” in New York City. In the coming days I’ll be posting a full transcript of what he said, but I wanted to post some of the highlights right now.

On another “National Treasure” movie he said, “there was some talk about it maybe going into the south,” but he’s unsure when it might be getting made as the team behind the movies are hard at work on “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”.

And speaking of “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, he said he starts filming this week and “the take is that it's going to entertain you, that sorcerer is good, but there is going to be moments where he's a little mysterious and just a little perhaps scary to look at. There's going to be a lot of fantasy and there's going to be some amazing FX.”

He also talked about working with Matthew Vaughn on the comic book adaptation of “Kick-Ass”. He said, “well, that movie was quite a satire in my opinion. That's an example of sort of the irony of the obsession of violence in the U.S., but truly all over. I think it's sort of an ironic take on that. So there will be some violent images, but it's done in a way that I think shows you the absurdity of it. He was easy. He was easy to work for. Again, I felt safe with Matthew. I felt like I could express myself again, like I did with Alex.”

Again, look for a full transcript in the coming days, but here’s exactly what he said about all his future projects:

Question: What's on your plate for the upcoming future as one of the hardest working actors in Hollywood?

Cage: Well, I have a movie called 'Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans' coming out. Werner Herzog directed that. I have a movie called 'Season of the Witch' coming out that Dominic Sean directed and now this week I'll be doing, commencing photography on 'Sorcerer's Apprentice'. Plus, I have two animated features coming out which hopefully make the kids smile.

Question: Following up on 'Sorcerer's Apprentice', what did 'Fantasia' mean to you growing up?

Cage: Wonder, enchantment, awe. It was my first real introduction into classical music and it was married to these beautiful, lifelike animated sequences with dinosaurs and ogres and gargoyles. It was just totally inspiring to me. So it's kind of a big moment for me to be able to play that part.

Question: Doing 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' as a live action film, what's the take on the story itself and on the sorcerer?

Cage: Well, I haven't even started filming yet, but I would like to say that the take is that it's going to entertain you, that sorcerer is good, but there is going to be moments where he's a little mysterious and just a little perhaps scary to look at. There's going to be a lot of fantasy and there's going to be some amazing FX. I'm working with Jay Baruchel who I think is fantastic.

Question: He's the apprentice?

Cage: He is, yeah. We're going to have some laughs. I can already feel it.

Question: You worked with Matthew Vaughn on “Kick-Ass”. Can you talk about that?

Cage: Well, that movie was quite a satire in my opinion. That's an example of sort of the irony of the obsession of violence in the U.S., but truly all over. I think it's sort of an ironic take on that. So there will be some violent images, but it's done in a way that I think shows you the absurdity of it. He was easy. He was easy to work for. Again, I felt safe with Matthew. I felt like I could express myself again, like I did with Alex. So I've had some good luck so far working with filmmakers that I connected with.

Question: Both the 'National Treasure' films were some of your most successful. Are you looking forward to a third one and do you have any idea where the franchise might go?

Cage: Yeah, I'm hopeful. Those movies make a lot of people happy. I don't know yet where it will go or what the story will be because the auspices are all right here right now working on 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice'. There was some talk about it maybe going into the south.

Question: Do you think you'll make it later this year?

Cage: I really don't know. I wish that I did, but I haven't got a clue. That sounds oddly Ben Gates [laughs].