Scott Walker‘s The Frozen Ground (Lionsgate, 8.23) is based on the real-life hunt for serial killer Robert Hansen (John Cusack) during the ’80s. Nic Cage (is it possible for him to play “normal” any more?) plays real-life Alaskan detective Glenn Flothe (but called St. Jack Holcombe in the film) Hansen “murdered between 17 and 21 young women, kidnapping them and taking them out to the Alaskan wilderness where he shot and buried them,” it says here. Pic costars Vanessa Hudgens, Katherine LaNasa, Radha Mitchell and 50 Cent, who also produced.
All his life Cusack has been playing nice guys, funny guys, eccentric guys, likable wise guys. Now, at age 47, he’s starting to play creepos. In The Raven he played a gifted creepo, Edgar Allan Poe. He played a repugnant swamp scuz in The Paperboy. He’s playing a serial killer creep in The Frozen Ground. And later this year he’s playing the profoundly creepy Richard Nixon on The Butler. Have we seen the last of the guy in High Fidelity?