NATIONAL TREASURE:
BOOK OF SECRETS
Production Information page 3
Cage and Company Reassemble,With Distinguished Additions Throughout his distinguished career, filled with one smash hit after another, Nicolas Cage
has never starred in a sequel…until NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS. But Cage had such a good time on their first sojourn that he was happy to take a second plunge as Ben Gates.
“I’ve sort of steered clear of sequels in the past, because I haven’t really liked the idea of repeating myself. But in this case, I felt that each episode would be a whole new adventure with new possibilities because of the nature of the character of Ben Gates, who’s sort of a historical detective. “We had a very good time working on the first one,” Cage confirms. “Martin Sheen once said to me that all that really matters is whether or not you like the people you’re working with and do you like the place in which you’re
working. I tend to agree with that.”
Ben Gates was a character who Cage came to not only enjoy playing but also, to some degree, personally identify with, in the first film. “Like Ben, I genuinely do like being around historical places, places where events have transpired, that have relevance and weight. It’s almost like you feel you can time-travel and absorb vibrations of the past. I think I have that in common with Ben Gates, who seems to be very interested in older things, with a past and a dignity of time attached to them.”
Cage enjoys the dichotomy that lies at the heart of Benjamin Gates. “Ben is an extreme square in that he doesn’t smoke or drink and sees things very clearly in terms of what is right and what isn’t right.
The paradox is that he’s a criminal of sorts, but in a good way. He will go the extra step, take the chance, and steal the Declaration of Independence if need be, or kidnap the President of the United States if need be, to get done what he feels is right. And I think that’s where the humor is in the movie. He’s up for breaking into The White House and Buckingham Palace and rifling through Queen Elizabeth’s desk. I think Ben gets a little adrenaline off of that. And at the same time, he’s sort of this modern-day knight, if you will. There is a time to break the law, and he’s doing it, but making that decision on his own.”
In “National Treasure,” Cage and the filmmakers created an entirely new brand of movie hero in Ben Gates, a man who prefers to rely more on brains than brawn. “Ben is a kind of semi-nerd but also cool and noble,” explains screenwriter Marianne Wibberley. “How did it happen that such an oldfashioned, dorky sort of guy became such a hero and so iconic? Kids come up to us and say that they love Ben Gates because he’s so smart. The truth is that Nic is the one who really made that character what he is.”
In fact, the Bruckheimer/Cage connection is one of filmdom’s most successful collaborations, with NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS the fifth such pairing between producer and star, following “The Rock,” “Con Air,” “Gone in 60 Seconds” and the first “National Treasure” movie. “Nic is one of our most brilliant actors,” says Bruckheimer, “an Academy Award® winner who can do anything. He can break your heart or make you laugh, depending on his role. He’s such a gifted actor, and we’re lucky to have this great partnership that keeps drawing him back into our productions.”
It also didn’t hurt matters that Cage and director Jon Turteltaub have a friendship that dates back to their time as classmates at high school in Los Angeles, in which they were both friendly and competitive. “Socially, we were kind of on opposite ends of the tracks,” Turteltaub recalls. “I was kind of the comfortable, funny kid who liked to be in musicals. Nic was a tough, smart, brooding, suspicious guy who had this air of rebel about him. We ended up teasing each other mercilessly in a really warm way. Nic is one of the most interesting people I’ve ever known, the most courageous, the most bold, the least ashamed. You put that in combination with someone who is not egomaniacal, who is a gentleman, a very kind and soft-spoken person. He rebels and takes chances with his work and in his life, but never at the expense of another person, and that’s a really special quality.”
“We were friendly, but there was always this little competitive tension there,” confirms Cage about his high school years with Turteltaub. “And working together on ‘National Treasure,’ Jon and I have become closer friends than we were in high school. By now there’s a genuine bond, and I look forward to working with him more and more.”
Jon Voight was also willingly lured into acting in his first sequel with NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS. Indeed, the role of Patrick in BOOK OF SECRETS is considerably expanded from the first film, making the character fully involved in the adventure, and even romance, of the main plotline. “Patrick is still a hard-working teacher,” Voight explains, “but after finding the Templar Treasure, maybe he has better shirts. His relationship with Ben is now solid, and they’ve enjoyed a bit of celebrity, and their lecture schedule is full. But when Mitch Wilkinson brings forth the lost page from the Booth diary which seems to implicate Patrick’s great-grandfather Thomas Gates, it threatens the whole family legacy, which kicks off the adventure.”
Also returning to the roost were Diane Kruger and Justin Bartha, who, as Abigail Chase and Riley Poole, discovered the Templar Treasure with Ben Gates in the first film. “I think the first film was successful because it took history that everyone has heard of and put it in a brand-new light of adventure and treasure hunting,” says the German-born Kruger. “It was a surprise to me how successful ‘National Treasure’ was in Europe and the rest of the world because of its American theme, but I guess treasure hunting goes a long way. I was excited by the idea that the second film opened up to locations in London and Paris, because everyone in the world can feel even more involved in the story.
“At the end of the first film, we left Ben and Abigail off falling in love and becoming a couple, and this one starts with them breaking up,” continues Kruger. “Abigail is a curator, so she considers facts to be more important than assumptions, and I think that’s one of the issues she has with Ben. She’s more rational and realistic, and a little reluctant to give in and go on
a new treasure hunt.”
Adds Justin Bartha, “I think people really gravitated to ‘National Treasure’ once they met the characters, who are personable and compelling. In the first film, Ben and Riley were kind of forced to work together and didn’t get along all the time. Yet, there was an odd chemistry between the two of them. Riley isn’t good at things that Ben is good at, and Ben isn’t good at things that Riley is good at. The central theme of BOOK OF SECRETS is family, and these two guys really need each other.”
In the first film, Riley Poole was decidedly a somewhat scruffy soul, in need of a shave and a decent haircut. In BOOK OF SECRETS, he’s more polished. “Yeah, that’s what a few million dollars does to a guy,” smiles Bartha. “My idea was that after finding the Templar Treasure, Riley spent most of his money on clothes. He got a bit of a makeover, but since he spent a lot of cash, made some bad investments, and had a run-in with the tax department, he kind of transforms back into the guy we originally met in the first movie.”
Also returning to NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS as FBI Special Agent Sadusky was Harvey Keitel, who was to take more opportunity to explore the character of a tough, relentless G-man who has loyalties both to the law and Freemasonry.
And then there were the two distinguished newcomers to the NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS cast. The filmmakers had their fingers (and toes) crossed when they decided to pursue Dame Helen Mirren, one of the world’s most celebrated and distinguished performers (and a very recent Academy Award® winner as Best Actress for her title role as Elizabeth II in “The Queen”) for the role of Emily Appleton. “We had been thinking about approaching Helen for quite a while, just based on her incredible work,” notes executive producer Mike Stenson. “We had wanted to work with Helen for a long time, but wanted to make sure that when we got our only shot, we had a fully realized part for her in the BOOK OF SECRETS script. By the time that happened, it was literally a week after she won the Academy Award® for ‘The Queen,’ so we were submitting the material to her at the worst possible time in terms of either her having the time to read the script or making a deal. But in fact, Helen couldn’t have had less attitude about just having won an Oscar®.”
Says Mirren, “I loved the first ‘National Treasure.’ I thought it was smart, very entertaining, and led people into history in a very lively way, and that’s always a good thing. Personally, I love historical documentaries because they always push me back into history, and I thought this was a very fun way of doing that.”
Mirren found the idea of portraying Ben Gates’ mother, Dr. Emily Appleton, more than engaging because of the character’s intelligence and strength. “Emily is a very high-level expert in deciphering ancient languages, which really fits into the DNA of that particular family, as both Patrick and Ben are adventuresome types who are obsessed with history. But Emily has resisted the whole concept of treasure hunting, feeling that it’s a waste of time, energy and money. She hasn’t seen Patrick in the 32 years since they were divorced, and they fall straight into an argument the minute they have a reunion, as if it all stopped just 30 seconds before.”
Also joining the assemblage was four-time Academy Award® nominee Ed Harris as Mitch Wilkinson, as devoted to his family’s history as Ben is to his, although it puts them on an inexorable collision course. Harris had good reasons to come aboard, as he already had previous professional associations with several of the film’s key filmmakers and actors. “I watched the first film with my wife and daughter and had a really good time,” says the actor.
“I had known Jon Turteltaub from the Sundance Film Festival, having both served as advisors in the festival’s Film Lab, and I liked him a lot. I’ve always been a fan of Nic’s and worked with him on ‘The Rock,’ which of course was produced by Jerry. And Diane Kruger and I worked together on ‘Copying Beethoven’ a couple of years ago in Hungary. It seemed like a fun job and an interesting character.
“Mitch is a kind of black-market antiquities dealer who has some experience as a mercenary,” Harris continues. “He’s a pretty tough guy who knows how to take care of himself. During the Civil War, Mitch’s family, the Wilkinsons, were staunch Confederates who got involved with the missing pages of the Booth diary. Mitch is very knowledgeable about history, like Ben, and has a need to make his mark on history.
And if he can find this particular treasure they’re seeking, I think it not only will fill him with pride, but Mitch will also feel that he will give his family a legacy which won’t be forgotten. It’s a bit of a cat-and-mouse thing all the way along with Ben and Mitch, but there’s also a certain amount of respect that my character has for Gates, because Mitch knows that Ben is very smart and can figure out all these puzzles and decipher codes. Mitch has to keep Ben alive, so that kind of tension remains between the two characters all throughout the piece. They actually need each other. In some sense, they’re two sides of the same coin.”
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