This just reaffirms what we've always known about Nicholas Cage - he takes care of business.
I wrote a book that took a slightly different angle: Take an actor/stuntman/martial artist who looks like another more famous actor and make a movie using the more famous actor's action movie template.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the profitable genius that is DEATH KISS.
https://www.amazon.com/Death-Kiss-Book-Movie-Cinexploits/dp/1796851841/
You can also see the movie here: https://tubitv.com/movies/495458/death-kiss?start=true
There is plenty of money to be made with small films that fill specific niches - especially if you are ready to make a lot of movies. I was the Director of Marketing at York Entertainment for two years and we sold over 100 movies worldwide filling the action, urban, horror, and comedy niches. With today's tech, and streaming platforms the operational aspects of delivering an entertaining movie are there - you just need a good script that can be shot well in 12 days or less.
Infographic required to explain your movie = FAIL.
When you break it down you have:
12 days of shooting. Which means...
8 pages a day. Improvised.
No crew other than Sound. Sunlight is your Gaffer.
The actors work for scale, and a cruise.
It's improbable to think he COULDN'T produce this film in 12 days.
We used to make them in 12 days, and shot them on 35mm.
You're confusing two different movies...
Yes, Jim Cameron rose fast up the ranks with Battle Beyond the Stars.
The worm business was as 2nd Unit Director on the film Galaxy of Terror.
In between all that he was part of the crew that provided the VFX for Escape From New York. He was also friends with many of the VFX guys from ILM as they came by while they were shooting Battle. Many of those guys were friends of the Skotak Bros.
This just reaffirms what we've always known about Nicholas Cage - he takes care of business.