Back in February we heard the rumour that Nicolas Cage was to play Al Capone in the Untouchables prequel, and now that looks to be confirmed, that and the impending destruction of the planet Earth.

Yes it's true, the first sign of the apocalypse is here as Nicolas Cage is cast as the character that Robert DeNiro played in the original and superb The Untouchables.

This film will see Brian DePalma's bringing the story of a younger Capone and Jimmy Malone to the screen. Malone, you'll remember, was the Irish cop played by Sean Connery, a role he played with an amazing Scottish accent and still pulled off with such style and powerful acting that no one really cared. Now we can be glad that Cage doesn't have to pull out his Italian accent for this role...just his acting.

The story comes from MTV Movies Blog, along with the strange rumour that perhaps either Sean Penn or Colin Farrell might play the young Malone in the film. Well my money might be on Penn more than Farrell.

Yet the news of Cage confirmed as Capone is quite sad for the prequel. Perhaps I'm being harsh, but the only good films I've seen of his are Snake Eyes and 8mm, and Snake Eyes was him just being way over the top.

What do you think? The Untouchables prequel off to a bad start?