--- title: 'National Treasure 3 Moves Forward as Jon Turteltaub Says It’s Happening' type: 'blog post' section: 'Away From Set' format: 'Editorial feature' standfirst: 'Director Jon Turteltaub says a third National Treasure film now has a script he and Disney can live with. Nicolas Cage is expected back as Benjamin Gates, though the director put the news in properly cautious Hollywood terms.' author: 'Marcus Reid' published: '2026-08-24' updated: '2026-08-24' about_people: - 'Jon Turteltaub' - 'Nicolas Cage' about_films: - 'National Treasure (2004)' tags: - 'National Treasure 3 Jon Turteltaub happening' - 'Nicolas Cage Benjamin Gates return' - 'National Treasure 3 Disney script update' - 'Jon Turteltaub National Treasure Hunt podcast' - 'National Treasure Book of Secrets sequel news' sources: - 'https://www.aol.com/articles/nicolas-cage-expected-return-national-170350000.html' - 'https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/national-treasure-3-is-a-go-with-nicolas-cage-returning-director-says/ar-AA2aLjUA' - 'https://www.joe.co.uk/entertainment/national-treasure-3-confirmed-jon-turteltaub-544397' - 'https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1413299-national-treasure-3-gets-major-update-from-director-jon-turteltaub-sounds-like-a-movie' - 'https://www.kgw.com/article/news/nation-world/national-treasure-3-officially-happening-director-confirms/507-bd4a1975-d277-40ac-bd20-fb425612e0db' - 'https://cosmicbook.news/national-treasure-3-finally-real-turteltaub' - 'https://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/Entertainment/20260823/4489998.html' canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/blog/national-treasure-3-moves-forward-as-jon-turteltaub-says-its-happening' publisher: 'CinePixo' --- # National Treasure 3 Moves Forward as Jon Turteltaub Says It’s Happening *Director Jon Turteltaub says a third National Treasure film now has a script he and Disney can live with. Nicolas Cage is expected back as Benjamin Gates, though the director put the news in properly cautious Hollywood terms.* By Marcus Reid, 2026-08-24 · Away From Set Jon Turteltaub says National Treasure 3 is happening. The director of the 2004 film and its 2007 sequel said at a live National Treasure Hunt podcast event on Friday, August 21, that the long-discussed third movie is now “finally real,” AOL reported. Nicolas Cage is expected to return as Benjamin Gates, the historian with the face of a man who has just found a clue in your desk drawer. For film readers, the change is simple: after years of maybes, jokes, and no-comment fog, the project now has a script Turteltaub says he likes, and Disney has treated it as a movie it could make. ## Jon Turteltaub Put National Treasure 3 on the Record Turteltaub made the announcement during a live taping of the National Treasure Hunt podcast in Philadelphia, JOE reported. He told the crowd it was the first time he had said it publicly. That matters because this is the kind of sequel that has lived for years in the soft middle distance, where producers sound hopeful, actors sound careful, and fans are left to hold the map upside down. This time, the director attached his own name to the news in front of a room. AOL reported that Turteltaub said the movie is “Hollywood real,” which is a funny and useful phrase. It means real enough to discuss, not real enough to book a babysitter for opening weekend. He joked that if Cage were hit by a bus, there would be no National Treasure 3, while if Turteltaub himself were hit by one, there probably would be. That is a director making a joke, but it also tells you where the weight sits. This thing depends on Cage. ![Nicolas cage handprint](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/6ea5dc86-bc72-4259-9fd0-57217bbe290d.webp) *Photo: Abxbay · [CC0](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nicolas_cage_handprint.jpg)* ## Nicolas Cage Is the Piece the Movie Needs The reports stop short of a public confirmation from Cage himself. JOE reported that no casting has been announced and that Cage’s representative had not commented. AOL, The News International and Webindia123 all described Cage as expected or set to return, with that confidence coming from Turteltaub’s remarks and the podcast’s account of the night. That distinction is not small print. It is the difference between a man being handed the hat and a room saying the hat is waiting for him. Cage’s Benjamin Gates is not a superhero, although he behaves with the certainty of one when a founding document is in danger. He is a historian, a treasure hunter, a cryptographer, and the rare movie lead who can look both brilliant and faintly embarrassed by his own plan. The first film asks him to steal the Declaration of Independence to protect it. That is a sentence that should collapse under its own weight. Cage made it move. A third film would ask him to do something harder than run through clues. It would ask him to return to a part from a different moment in his career without treating it like a wax figure. That is the job inside the job. ![Jon Turteltaub, director of The Sorcerer's Apprentice , participating in a panel on the film at WonderCon 2010.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/23c355a5-d178-4b98-b547-a09ad66ef03e.webp) ![Nicolas Cage at 2022 Toronto International Film Festival Day 2 red carpet](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/9a5c7770-1673-4dd1-8c3c-90e3c96174b6.webp) *Photos: BrokenSphere · [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jon_Turteltaub_at_WonderCon_2010_2.JPG); Kuya JDL · [CC BY 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nicolas_Cage_at_TIFF_2022.jpg)* ## Disney Has a Script Turteltaub Says It Can Make The most concrete piece of news is the script. JOE reported that Turteltaub said, “We finally have a script that I like,” and that Disney responded that it sounded like a movie the studio could make. AOL also reported that Turteltaub said the screenplay had been approved by him and Disney. Webindia123 reported that producer Jerry Bruckheimer is also on board, and that the National Treasure Hunt podcast said he had given the script his blessing. There is a lot tucked inside that. A script that a director likes is one thing. A script a studio believes it can make is another. That means budget, schedule, cast availability, rights, and all the less romantic parts of a movie that decide whether the romantic parts ever get filmed. Turteltaub also said, according to AOL, that “to whatever extent we can, everyone’s back.” That is generous phrasing because it leaves room for life. Actors age. Calendars fill. Deals get fussy. The people who turn up on screen are also people with agents, children, other jobs, and knees that may not feel like sprinting through another marble hallway. ![Jon Turteltaub at WonderCon 2010 3](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/1b95ec28-b60c-4bbe-a835-5ca43ad7fe58.webp) ![from www.popularfitness.com Nicolas Cage at the Toronto International Film Festival - TIFF 2022 - for the movie Butcher's Crossing](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/bd74d8b7-13ad-4b6f-884e-ce16adda5b11.webp) *Photos: BrokenSphere · [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10263808); Peter Kudlacz · [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nicolas_Cage_at_TIFF_2022_(52393471243).jpg)* ## Benjamin Gates Has Been Waiting Since Book of Secrets National Treasure opened in 2004 with Cage as Benjamin Gates. AOL described the plot as Benjamin uncovering a plan to steal the Declaration of Independence, failing to convince the FBI, and deciding to protect it by stealing it first. Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Jon Voight and Harvey Keitel were part of the film’s world, and JOE reported that Sean Bean and Christopher Plummer also appeared. The sequel, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, followed in 2007. JOE reported that the first film made $347 million worldwide and the second made $459 million. The follow-up added Helen Mirren, Ed Harris, Bruce Greenwood and Ty Burrell, according to JOE. AOL reported that Cage said during a 2007 press conference that he returned for the sequel because he felt it was at least as good as the first film. He said the idea of raising the stakes from stealing the Declaration of Independence to kidnapping the president made him nervous, then made him laugh. That laugh is important. National Treasure works best when it knows the idea is absurd and still treats the people inside it with a straight face. The fun is not in mocking Benjamin Gates. The fun is in watching a man take a ridiculous clue seriously enough that, for two hours, you do too. ## The Disney+ Detour Did Not Close the Vault Disney+ brought the name back in 2022 with National Treasure: Edge of History. AOL reported that the series followed a new group of characters led by Jess Valenzuela, played by Lisette Olivera. Webindia123 reported that Justin Bartha and Harvey Keitel appeared in the series, which also referred to the page 47 mystery from Book of Secrets. JOE reported that the show was canceled after one season. Cage sounded far colder on the matter in 2024. AOL reported that he told Screen Rant there was no National Treasure 3 and joked that anyone looking for treasure should not look at Disney. Now the answer has changed, at least from Turteltaub’s chair. It is still early enough to be careful. Disney has not announced a cast. Cage has not made his own statement in these reports. No release date is named. But there is a script, a director saying the words out loud, Bruckheimer’s name back in the frame, and Benjamin Gates once again close enough to the Declaration of Independence that somebody at Disney may want to check the display case. ## How this piece was made **Format:** Editorial feature ## In this piece - [Jon Turteltaub](https://cinepixo.com/people/jon-turteltaub) - [Nicolas Cage](https://cinepixo.com/people/nicolas-cage) - 2004 · [National Treasure](https://cinepixo.com/movies/national-treasure-2004) ## Sources - https://www.aol.com/articles/nicolas-cage-expected-return-national-170350000.html - https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/national-treasure-3-is-a-go-with-nicolas-cage-returning-director-says/ar-AA2aLjUA - https://www.joe.co.uk/entertainment/national-treasure-3-confirmed-jon-turteltaub-544397 - https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1413299-national-treasure-3-gets-major-update-from-director-jon-turteltaub-sounds-like-a-movie - https://www.kgw.com/article/news/nation-world/national-treasure-3-officially-happening-director-confirms/507-bd4a1975-d277-40ac-bd20-fb425612e0db - https://cosmicbook.news/national-treasure-3-finally-real-turteltaub - https://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/Entertainment/20260823/4489998.html Every factual claim above is drawn from these. The reading of them is ours. Source: https://cinepixo.com/blog/national-treasure-3-moves-forward-as-jon-turteltaub-says-its-happening Written for CinePixo. Nothing on this page is imported prose.