Nicolas Cage says Malibu sinkhole has him living in hotels

Nicolas Cage's $10.5 million Malibu property's driveway is now a deep hole, and the actor says he is living in hotels because of it.

Cage told a Los Angeles Comic Con crowd on Oct. 31 that he was "currently a little bit homeless" after something happened to his Malibu house. "I'm just sort of living in hotels," he said, explaining why he would not be home to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters.

What happened: A sinkhole opened near Cage's beachfront property in September, damaging the home and collapsing its deck and driveway. The collapse also affected more than 30 nearby properties, with residents evacuated or properties marked unsafe because fire trucks, sheriff's deputies and medical responders could not safely get through.

The City of Malibu marked 31 properties unsafe because the collapsed driveway access blocked emergency vehicles, according to Page Six. Seven homes on the street were marked unsafe for occupancy, while another 24 were slated to be red-tagged because of the lack of safe vehicle access. A private driveway becoming a public-safety problem is an expensive way to find out how much of a road matters.

The damage: Reports establish severe damage to Cage's property, but not that the entire house was destroyed. Page Six reported that heavy rain and coastal erosion contributed to the collapse, and that Cage filed permits for sandbags, debris removal, shoring preparation and soil testing. He is trying to protect and repair the property while staying elsewhere.

Halloween, anyway: Cage said he planned to take his 4-year-old daughter, August, trick-or-treating in Santa Monica before putting her to bed and watching Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. He described the film as one Kubrick "directed the hell out of," which is about as much enthusiasm as anyone can reasonably bring to Halloween while their driveway has left the building.

The open question is whether the shoring and erosion work can make the Malibu property safe enough for Cage to move out of hotels.