Melbourne Boy Guy Pearce (who still lives in Melbourne – and occasionally still visits the “Neighbours” set in Vermont South, too) is off to New Orleans to work on the new Nicolas Cage thriller “Hungry Rabbit Jumps”, according to Variety.

The flick will be helmed by another Aussie (and he may have been the reason Pearce signed on), Ballarat’s Roger Donaldson (“The World’s Fastest Indian”).

‘Unofficial’ Aussie Nicolas Cage (well, he shoots enough movies here!) stars as a man who becomes entangled with an underground vigilante organization after his wife (January Jones of “Mad Men”) is the victim of a brutal crime.

You’ll recall Tobey Maguire was originally supposed to headline the flick; Spider-Man retains a producing credit.

Pearce can currently be seen in John ‘The Proposition’ Hillcoat’s new movie “The Road” – our review of which you can read here.