Nicolas Cage's Bruce Lee Homage Cut From 'Sorcerer's Apprentice'

Director Jon Turteltaub let his star take him to 'some wild places,' but not all of them actually worked.

Oh, Nicolas Cage, you wonderfully wacky man! Who else has to tell a group of reporters that he honestly never hired a voodoo priestess to break a hex on a movie set? Who can start a conversation about irascible filmmaker Werner Herzog's directorial style by saying, "Werner doesn't really know a lot about jazz"? Who else could tell David Letterman a story about taking mushrooms with a cat named Louis?

What would Hollywood (and those of us who write about it) do without Nic Cage? The town would be a much less compelling place, that's for certain. Yet there is a flip side to the actor's madcap worldview. As "Sorcerer's Apprentice" director Jon Turteltaub told MTV News, a great majority of the ideas Cage brings to a set are simply too nutso to consider.

"Nic made me promise before this movie that I would just let him lead me on a crazy adventure through this character," added Turteltaub, who has also directed Cage in two "National Treasure" movies. "And I said, 'OK, I'll go there.' He brought me to some wild places."

But one improvisatory moment in particular was just too weird to include in the final cut of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," in which Cage stars as immortal magician Balthazar Blake, who does mystical battle against archenemy Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina). The incident took place during a scene in which Balthazar and Horvath converge in an NYU public bathroom for a plasma-bolt-filled throwdown.

"At one point, Nic went into a whole Bruce Lee routine," Turteltaub said. "We were like, 'Oh, that's great. Do that more.' Cut, cut. ... It won't be on the DVD!"