Nicolas Cage recently admitted he’s always wanted to be a knight, ever since the age of five. Well, it looks like he got his wish, chain mail, Crusades and all, in Season of the Witch, which is a curious mix of supernatural horror and historical period drama, with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from one of Cage’s own personal screen heroes, Christopher Lee, all lumpy and bumpy from the Plague.

The film choice is hardly anything out of the ordinary or taxing for the ‘Prince of Supernatural’, Cage, who likes to dabble in the magical and unexplained and has done so in many of his previous projects, most recently The Sorcerer’s Apprentice for Disney. Sadly Dominic Sena’s film never seems to fully amount to anything on the grand scale that you would expect from a Crusading adventure involving a witch who is blamed for the spread of the Black Plague and a dollop of demonic presence.

It’s a shame, considering it has a compelling beginning as some old hags get tried and dunked for dabbling in the dark arts and the stage is fully set for a fun and boisterous adventure between two comrades-in-arms, Behmen (Cage) and Felson, played by Hellboy himself, Ron Perlman. The two are seen slaying the un-Christian masses abroad, before stopping to think about their actions and getting an attack of conscience, then going AWOL to get away from the clutches of the 14th Century church. It’s an ideal screen pairing that works a treat with Cage’s sensitivity verses Perlman’s oafish presence. There are also some truly humorous moments, mainly due to Perlman’s Felson teaching a naïve knight wannabe a thing or two about survival. As a Cage-Perlman show, it ticks all the boxes, but it just isn’t enough to bring it out of mediocrity.

Basically, once apprehended and made to transport the witch (Claire Foy of newly-found Upstairs Downstairs fame), the knights’ journey seems to be virtually over, and their destination reached before there is ever time to really get into the swing of the adventure. There are also effects and the ultimate battle of good verses evil in a library – ever the power of the written word – that trigger memories of past vampire and demon films, with a touch of the Van Helsing in places. One amusing part is Perlman headbutting Satan that Hellboy fans will relish. Finally, for such non-Christian sentiment, the word of God prevails in the end; so Bible-fearing American audiences have little to fear.

The beauty is in the Cage-Perlman partnership of Season of the Witch, so if this is appealing, it’s certainly worth watching. What it lacks in plot it makes up for in casting prowess and spirit, even if the end result leaves a rather flat feeling.

**~~~ (2/5)

Here are two clips from Dominic Sena’s Season of the Witch to throw a bit of superstition, spectacle and ritual into this festive time.

Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman suffer plague, bloodshed, and all sorts of witchy torment in this film, due out in January in the UK, and despite the hideously generic posters there’s an epic quality to the visuals and, as seen in the clips below, Sena can ramp up the action when he needs to.

Here are the clips, wolves and witches abound. Enjoy friends.

Digital Spy’d these.

Earlier today, Alex put up some new stills from the new Nicolas Cage movie, Season of the Witch and this afternoon, Digital Spy have revealed the first UK poster for the movie which is directed by Dominic Sena and also stars Ulrich Thomsen, Stephen Graham, Ron Perlman, Robert Sheehan and the legendary Christopher Lee.

It’s due to be with us 7th January. Check out the new poster below which you can click to enlarge. Be careful though, ‘All Hell is About to Break Lose’!

Synopsis: Behmen, a medieval knight, undertakes a mission pitting him against a devious witch and making him the last hope for the world against an ancient and dark force. His faith broken by years of battle as a crusader, Behmen returns to central Europe to find his homeland decimated by the Black Plague. While searching for food and supplies at the Palace at Marburg, Behmen and his trusted companion, Felson, are apprehended and ordered by the dying Cardinal to deliver a young peasant girl believed to be the witch responsible for the Plague to a remote abbey where her powers can be destroyed. Behmen agrees to the assignment but only if the peasant girl is granted a fair trial. As he and five others set off on this dangerous journey, they realize with mounting dread that the cunning girl is no ordinary human and that their mission will pit them against an evil that even in these dark times they never could have imagined.

Now a days it has become so difficult to tell how good a Nicolas Cage film is going to be.  The man has been super busy trying to get out of debt that the quality of his films have become so inconsistant you may as well just buy your ticket and cross your fingers.  After seeing the trailer and some of the still below though, I may just be willing to take the plunge, especially since I’m a sucker for movies based around the Middle Ages.

Yesterday, Relativity Media sent Shock Till You Drop three new images from Dominic Sena’s upcoming film, Season of the Witch.  I have posted two of the three images below.  You can find the third over at STYD‘s website.  I chose a dramatic Nicolas Cage witch encounter and one of Ron Perlman doing work with a sword.  Check them out below and let us know what you think.

With news of a January 2011 release saving Dominic Sena’s Season of the Witch from death by Straight-to-DVD we will soon get to enjoy Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman, who make a surprisingly complementary duo, returning from The Crusades to find Plague and nasty death all over their beloved homeland.

In advance of its release there’s another trailer out along with a new poster which makes me think that Photoshop comes with a Nicolas Cage Face template. Anyhoo, the trailer looks great and fans of the fantasy-free swords and hitting epics will no doubt find something to enjoy.

As this one has been hanging around for a while there’s a few other images out there, and another trailer.

Here’s the trailer,

And the obligatory NicCageFace poster all the way from sunny IMPA,

Remember reading about a medieval thriller film called Season of the Witch starring Nicolas Cage, many moons ago?

Initially scheduled to open in March this year in the US, the original distributor Lionsgate pulled it from that date and now, according to The Wrap,  Relativity Media have control of it and a January 2011  date for the US has been pencilled in.

The film (which also stars Ron Perlman, Stephen Graham and Christopher Lee) follows two medieval knights as they accompany a young woman accused of witchcraft to her trial at a remote abbey. The film is directed by Dominic Sena (who previously worked with Cage on Gone In 60 Seconds)

Normally this kind of delay would spell a direct-to-video release but the company must think it still has the potential to make some kind of dent at the box office.

We’ll let you know when a UK dated has been scheduled.

Here’s a new batch of photos from the official Season of the Witch website. The movie stars hit or miss actor, Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Stephen Campbell Moore, Robert Sheehan, Claire Foy, Christopher Lee and is directed by Dominic Sena. It’s scheduled for release 19th March. We’ve had a trailer which was released a while back which you can see here. I am worried this could be another Cage flop. Should I be?

Check out the new images below and click them to enlarge.

Synopsis: Nicolas Cage is a medieval knight Behmen who undertakes a mission pitting him against an devious witch and making him the last hope for the world against an ancient and dark force. His faith broken by years of battle as a crusader, Behmen returns to central Europe to find his homeland decimated by the Black Plague. While searching for food and supplies at the Palace at Marburg, Behmen and his trusted companion, Felson (Ron Perlman) are apprehended and ordered by the dying Cardinal to deliver a young peasant girl believed to be the witch responsible for the Plague to a remote abbey where her powers can be destroyed. Behmen agrees to the assignment but only if the peasant girl is granted a fair trial. As he and five others set off on this dangerous journey, they realize with mounting dread that the cunning girl is no ordinary human, and that their mission will pit them against an evil that even in these dark times they never could have imagined.

Whether you love him or hate him, you can’t deny that Nicolas Cage works very hard at making movies. He always seems to have more than one in the pipeline at any given time. As well as the new trailer or Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice that was released this week, ShockTillYouDrop have released a brand new poster for Lionsgate’s ‘Season of the Witch’ which also stars Ron Perlman, Stephen Campbell Moore, Robert Sheehan, Claire Foy, Ulrich Thomsen, Stephen Graham, Christopher Lee and is directed by Dominic Sena.

Season of the Witch is scheduled for release 19th March 2010. You can click the poster to enlarge or check out the synopsis below.

Cage stars as the medieval knight Behmen who undertakes a mission pitting him against an devious witch and making him the last hope for the world against an ancient and dark force.

His faith broken by years of battle as a crusader, Behmen returns to central Europe to find his homeland decimated by the Black Plague. While searching for food and supplies at the Palace at Marburg, Behmen and his trusted companion, Felson (Perlman) are apprehended and ordered by the dying Cardinal to deliver a young peasant girl ­ believed to be the witch responsible for the Plague ­ to a remote abbey where her powers can be destroyed.

Behmen agrees to the assignment but only if the peasant girl is granted a fair trial. As he and five others set off on this dangerous journey, they realize with mounting dread that the cunning girl is no ordinary human, and that their mission will pit them against an evil that even in these dark times they never could have imagined.

Season of the Witch is scheduled for release in March 2010, and I am completely indifferent about it. Whilst I do not think it looks completely terrible, it definitely does not look very good to me. This doesn’t surprise me though seeing as how director Dominic Sena has a track record of mediocre-to-bad films, such as his Gone in 60 Seconds remake (also starring Nicolas Cage), Swordfish, and most recently the critically panned Whiteout. Joining Nicolas Cage in Season of the Witch are Ron Perlman (Hellboy), little-known British actress Claire Foy, and Stephen Graham (Snatch), with Christopher Lee occupying a smaller role.

Watch the trailer and decide for yourself whether you’ll be anticipating Season of the Witch or not.

IGN have posted the new trailer for Nicolas Cage’s Season of the Witch. Cage seems to have a new movie coming out every week but the usual question we have to ask whenever his name is attached to anything is, ‘is it any good?!’.

Season of the Witch is directed by Dominic Sena who has previously brought us Gone in Sixty Seconds and Swordfish. He’s recently directed Whiteout which starred Kate Beckinsale, cost $35m to make and has recouped $12m at the box office. Not great figures eh! We’ll have to see how this new movie gets on. Check out the synopsis and trailer below.

A beleaguered church, deeming sorcery the culprit of the plague, commands the two knights to transport an accused witch (Claire Foy) to a remote abbey, where monks will perform a ritual in hopes of ending the pestilence. A priest (Stephen Campbell Moore), a grieving knight (Ulrich Thomsen), an itinerant swindler (Stephen Graham) and a headstrong youth who can only dream of becoming a knight (Robert Sheehan) join a mission troubled by mythically hostile wilderness and fierce contention over the fate of the girl.When the embattled party arrives at the abbey, a horrific discovery jeopardizes the knight’s pledge to ensure the girl fair treatment, and pits them against an inexplicably powerful and destructive force.