A Branzino Breakfast Taught ‘Spider-Noir’ Creator Oren Uziel Everything He Needed to Know About Nicolas Cage

IndieWire Honors: The showrunner explains that Cage was a creative partner whose artistic choices were as consistently surprising as his food orders.

On June 4, the IndieWire Honors Spring 2026 ceremony will celebrate the creators and stars responsible for crafting some of the year’s best television series. Curated and selected by IndieWire’s editorial team, IndieWire Honors is a celebration of the creators, artisans, and performers behind shows well worth toasting. In the days leading up to the Los Angeles event, IndieWire is showcasing their work with new interviews and tributes from their peers.

Ahead, “Spider-Noir” creator Oren Uziel recalls how an initial lunch meeting confirmed his hopes that Innovation Award recipient Nicolas Cage was just as spontaneous and creative as advertised.

The first time I met Nick was over an 11 a.m. whole branzino at Bottega Louie, a French patisserie in downtown Los Angeles known for its otherworldly macarons. But that’s Nick… he’s never going to make the expected choice. He’s never going to go halfway. And he’s damn sure not going to get upstaged by a bunch of macarons. 

Going into that lunch, I knew what we all know about Nick. That he’s a truly singular movie star. That he’s a talent without par. That he can play drama, comedy, romance, horror… hell, sometimes he’ll even play himself and make that a hit, too. 

The Nick I got to know over the course of the next two years making “Spider-Noir” together was one of unlimited knowledge of cinema, craft, history, philosophy, spirituality, and humanity. He’s a consummate professional… never late, always ready to work, and unnervingly prepared. I’m pretty sure he had every line of dialogue memorized before I’d actually written the final script. Nick is also generous. And kind. And fucking hilarious. But Nick’s most salient characteristic is his uncanny ability to make choices that might seem out of the box seem like the only possible option. Surprising but inevitable is the key to great writing, and Nick Cage is the human cheat code. 

Nick Cage is an 11 a.m. branzino. 

“Spider-Noir” is now streaming on Prime Video.