Seth Rogen: 'Nicolas Cage thinks James Franco stole his character idea for Spring Breakers'

Nicolas Cage suspects James Franco stole his character pitch and used it for Spring Breakers, according to Seth Rogen.

In Yearbook, his upcoming collection of personal essays, Rogen recalls him and his longtime collaborator Evan Goldberg having a meeting with Cage about potentially playing the Russian crime boss antagonist in their 2011 movie The Green Hornet, which they wrote, and he came up with a wacky idea for how the character should look and sound.

"Only for Cage to inform them he wanted to play him as a bald man, with hair tattooed on, large prosthetic lips and a voice like Edward G Robinson," a profile interview with British GQ reads. "They later met Cage in person and he informed them that, actually, he wanted to play him as a 'white Bahamian,' with a thick Caribbean accent, and proceeded to act out a scene in which he would be dumping pigs' blood on Rogen's Green Hornet in a 'creepy voodoo ritual.'"

Rogen, who starred in the movie, didn't go for Cage's idea and went on to cast Christoph Waltz in a very different interpretation of the role.

In 2012, Rogen's good friend Franco played a rapper and drug dealer named Alien, a character quite similar to Cage's pitch, in Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers, and Cage believes Franco took inspiration from his idea.

The story continues, "He didn't get the part but did request a meeting more recently during which Cage asked Rogen if he'd told James Franco about his idea, as he suspected Franco had nicked the character for Spring Breakers."

"The second part actually just happened before the pandemic," the funnyman told GQ.

When asked if the Con Air star might be annoyed at the story being shared in his book, he replied, "I mean, he already doesn't like me, is the point. So he'll continue not to like me!"