Nicolas Cage to star in thriller 'Hungry Rabbit Jumps'

Only days after signing to star in the 3D action pic "Drive Angry," Nicolas Cage is satiating his appetite with "The Hungry Rabbit Jumps," a thriller that Roger Donaldson has boarded to direct for Tobey Maguire's Maguire Entertainment and Endgame.

The Robert Tannen-written script, which Endgame picked up last year, centers on a man whose wife is the victim of a brutal crime. He subsequently becomes entangled with an underground vigilante organization.

Maguire, who is not acting in the production, is producing with Maguire Entertainment's Jenno Topping. Jim Stern produces for Endgame, which is financing. Ram Bergman is also producing.

FilmNation is handling foreign sales.

"As a company, we've been wanting to do a thriller for a long time," said Stern, whose "An Education" is making the festival rounds. "In the best of the Hitchcockian tradition, we've got a character who's offered the chance for vengeance and he finds himself in over his head."

The movie is scheduled to shoot in January in New Orleans.

CAA-repped Cage seems to be making Louisiana his new home. He filmed "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" there and will segue from "Rabbit" to "Drive Angry," which shoots in April.

Donaldson, repped by CAA, last directed the heist thriller "The Bank Job."