American remakes of Asian films seem to come a dime a dozen these days, with fright fests like The Ring, Shutter and The Eye surfacing first in recent memory. What’s unusual about Bangkok Dangerous, however, is the unusual magnitude of the cast; it stars Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage.

With mega-million dollar hits like the National Treasure movies under his belt, as well as an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas, Cage doesn’t need to travel to Thailand and work with foreign-language directors. That’s usually left for actors of the Jessica Alba, Sarah Michelle Geller caliber.

But Cage says this is a well-thought and strategic career move, as exemplified by his producers’ credit. “I’ve been trying to think more and more internationally and trying to have a global mind,” Cage told the Los Angeles Times. “That means going to foreign countries and working with filmmakers who have a special point of view that will reinvent me in an alternative light.”

Filmmaking brothers Danny and Oxide Pang were contracted by American producers to remake their 1999 Thai-language hit, Bangkok Dangerous, about a lonely assassin in a dangerous and foreign setting. Earlier this year an American version of their 2003 hit The Eye was released and did fairly well. A sequel is already rumored to be in the works.

But everyone involved with Bangkok Dangerous says that it’s not your basic Asian remake. It’s reported to be a “Thai movie with an American star, rather than an American movie made in Bangkok.”

Cage admits that part of his fascination with Asian culture and filmmaking stems from his four-year-old marriage to a Korean woman. He says he understands what it’s like to be intrigued with a culture, but not really know how to fit in.

American distributor Lionsgate has certainly found the key to fitting Bangkok Thai into the American movie-going culture. The film opens wide and alone in more than 2,500 theaters on Friday, August 4. It might not be number one at the box office for the weekend, but it will certainly have the best opening numbers.