Nicolas Cage is heading back into the archives. Director Jon Turteltaub confirmed that National Treasure 3 is officially moving forward, more than two decades after Cage first played treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates in National Treasure.
The franchise’s last theatrical outing, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, hit theaters in 2007. Both films combined for over $800 million worldwide, making them two of Cage’s highest-grossing live-action credits, even as a third installment spent years stuck in development limbo.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Turteltaub broke the news during a live taping of the National Treasure Hunt podcast in Philadelphia on August 21, telling the crowd he had a script Disney had signed off on.
“It’s happening,” he declared. “You’re the first people I have said this out loud to. I have not said anything before this, but you deserve to have the scoop. It’s finally real. Now, it’s ‘Hollywood real,’ meaning things could happen. Nic gets hit by a bus, there’s no National Treasure. If I get hit by a bus, there’s probably a National Treasure. Welcome to Hollywood, that’s Hollywood.”
Turteltaub’s confirmation is the strongest signal yet that National Treasure 3 is actually moving, but he’s not the only person close to the project who’s been hinting at this for a while.
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Jerry Bruckheimer Was Already Teasing This Moment
Turteltaub’s announcement did not come out of nowhere. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer had been quietly setting the stage for months, telling The Direct at the Producers Guild Awards earlier this year that the sequel was “coming along quite well” and that the team was still working on the screenplay.
Bruckheimer had also floated the project’s momentum back in late 2025, telling The Wrap the film was getting closer to becoming a reality with both Cage and Turteltaub expected to return. Turteltaub now says that promise has been fulfilled on the writing side.
“Finally have a script that I like,” he said.
Disney’s response, according to Turteltaub, was just as encouraging: the studio said the screenplay “sounds like a movie we can make.” He also indicated the original cast is largely coming back, saying “to whatever extent we can, everyone’s back,” a lineup that includes Cage as Ben Gates.
None of this guarantees a release date yet, and Turteltaub himself was careful to frame the news as “Hollywood real” rather than a locked production. However, after Cage flatly denied the project’s existence back in 2024, having both a director and a Disney-approved script attached marks the furthest National Treasure 3 has gotten in nearly twenty years.
The next milestone to watch for is an official greenlight from Disney and a start date for production.
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