A friend of a friend we met in the pub after said "This is the first time I've liked Nic Cage since Wild at Heart and I thought, it can't have been that long - but then couldn't think of a counter-example.

That's a good point about Millar maybe not knowing himself; certainly Big Daddy's casting was announced before the character was even seen in the comic, and given Cage was the biggest star he might have been able to veto a twist which turned up after he did.