The last decade hasn’t been particularly kind to Brian De Palma. After finishing Mission: Impossible in 1996, he has released a slew of semi-stinkers like Snake Eyes, Femme Fatal, and The Black Dahlia. All very interesting films visually but with incoherent or ridiculous plots and sometimes cheesy performances. But, as we noted here, De Palma is going to try to recapture some of his glorious past by making a prequel for, The Untouchables, and now MTV confirms that De Palma has his leading man for The Untouchables: Capone Rising: Nic Cage.

The original film shot Kevin Costner to stardom as Treasury agent Elliot Ness. The prequel will focus on the characters of crime lord Al Capone (Robert DeNiro played him in 1987, but Cage will take over for the younger version.) and cop Jimmy Malone (a role that won Sean Connery an Oscar.) No word on who will play the early version of Malone, but I like the idea of Ewan McGregor. Maybe he could make a habit of playing the younger self of all the famous actors from the United Kingdom.

Even with Cage’s involvement and De Palma’s seeming inexhaustible ability to get good actors to work with him, boding well for the casting process, I have a bad feeling about this one. I loved the original movie (who didn’t) but everything about this idea leaves me cold. Capone and Malone were the more interesting characters but without Ness’ bland goodness, it could become a scenery chewing match (imagine The Departed with only Jack Nicholson and Mark Whalberg.) If Cage is let off the leash, he can overact with the best of them. But, maybe if they get David Mamet to write the script again, it could work. Lines like “he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue, that’s the Chicago way” are what helped make the first movie great.