It takes 22 seconds for Nicolas Cage to thoughtfully sniff an enormous mushroom in the trailer for Pig, his new hog-focused, Portland-shot revenge thriller. It takes 30 more for him to say the words, “I’m looking for a truffle pig. Someone stole her,” over a sweeping shot of the Broadway Bridge. 

It took zero seconds for me to begrudgingly admit that this film might just usurp Babe: Pig in the City as my all-time favorite slice of pork cinema.

Set and shot in Portland, the film (from director Michael Sarnoski, in his feature debut) tells the story of an outcast mushroom forager named Rob (Cage) whose beloved truffle pig gets abducted, leading him on a twisty journey to the Rose City's under(pork)belly. Alex Wolff plays his companion, and local performer Darius Pierce (who does not appear in the trailer) plays a guy named Edgar.

If you’ll recall, locals spotted Cage at Le Pigeon back in the fall of 2019, when production on Pig began. COVID predictably delayed the film’s release, but fear not: 2021 will harbor the summer of Pig. The gratifyingly insane trailer dropped this afternoon, and you’ll be able to catch it on the big screen (more like pig screen, am I right?) starting July 16.

Some stray trailer highlights:

• A conspicuous logo for St. Johns sandwich spot NoPoBoys. Nice!
• Mustachioed Alex Wolff looking solemn in what appears to be a mausoleum at River View Cemetery
• The pig is orange?? OK go off
• Nic Cage lives in a little cabin in the Oregon woods like I did when I was 12 ... representation matters
• The delivery of the line "buy yourself a new pig"
• The centrality of fingerless gloves