Nicolas Cage gave his most loyal fans an epic surprise on Sunday, when he gatecrashed the fourth annual CAGED film festival.

The event was being held at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas, with five Cage movies being shown back to back. But what fans weren’t expecting was for the actor himself to turn up and treat them to a reading of Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’.

In a video shared by organisers, the actor said: “I'm thrilled to say that I made it to CAGED. This is the fourth incarnation of CAGED. And I wanted to do something special, my way of saying 'thank you' so I did a cold reading of Edgar Allan Poe's Tell-Tale Heart, which influenced my work. 

“I used to read it when I was a child and it gave me all kinds of nightmares and I think I was trying to make movies on some level to get to that feeling in some of the more manic performances.”

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This year’s celebration had been titled C4GED 4-EVER and featured five films selected by the actor himself: Bangkok Dangerous, Joe, Bringing Out the Dead, Army of One and Lord of War. Cage also treated fans to a 47-minute question and answer session.

In a statement to People magazine, organiser Greg MacLennan said: “This is and will always be the greatest day of my life. I apologise to my unborn future child.”

Cage himself added: “I’m thrilled to say I made it to C4GED. I’ve been trying to get here before, never happened, but I was always very touched that this was occurring here in Austin.”