In context: Nicolas Cage recently played the most challenging role of his career as the titular serial killer in Longlegs. The 42-year veteran actor now faces an arguably more difficult role portraying John Madden in the upcoming Amazon biopic “Madden.”
On Thursday, Amazon MGM Studios announced that Nicolas Cage will portray the late football legend John Madden in an upcoming film directed and co-written by David O. Russell. Although the feature is billed as a biopic, The Hollywood Reporter notes that insiders described it as “the origin story of Madden NFL,” the video game franchise.
“Nicolas Cage, one of our greatest and most original actors, will portray the best of the American spirit of originality, fun, and determination in which anything is possible as beloved national legend John Madden,” Russell said in a casting reveal.
Nic Cage is one of my favorite actors, but I have difficulty picturing him as John Madden. It’s a role seemingly tailor-made for comedian Frank Caliendo, whose Madden impersonations (below) made him a household name. I get that Russell was looking for a serious actor rather than a comedian, but why not? Last year, Deadline noted that the director was considering Saturday Night Live alum Will Ferrell for the role.
Madden was a character unto himself. His mannerisms, quips, and iconic voice are all a bit funny if you think about it. PC Gamer’s Wes Fenlon points to one of his favorite John Madden lines from the movie The Replacements.
“I love to see a fat guy score.”
“Why?”
“Because first you get a fat guy spike, and then you get the fat guy dance!”
That’s John Madden playing John Madden. He doesn’t need a script because he made silly remarks his trademark in color commentary for 30 years. He was the master of overexplaining a play and coming up with obscure factoids and anecdotes about players that nobody ever questioned because he was the legendary John Madden.
Madden never played pro football because of a knee injury suffered during training with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1958. Instead, he became one of the youngest head coaches in the NFL when he signed on with the Oakland Raiders in 1969 at age 32. It was the only team he would coach in his 10 years on the field. He retired with a record of 112-39-7 in 1979, making him one of the most successful coaches in NFL history.
Shortly after starting his new career as an NLF commentator, Madden approached video game publisher Electronic Arts with an idea for a football game. This seed eventually became Madden NFL, which launched its first game in 1988 on the Apple II, MS-DOS, Commodore 64, and Commodore 128. Barring 1989, EA has released at least one new Madden NFL game every year for over 30 years, making it one of the longest actively-running video game franchises ever.
Although HR’s anonymous sources describe it as a video game origin story, viewers shouldn’t go into it thinking it will be like Joh S. Baird’s Tetris movie. While the Madden NFL franchise is a fun part of the legendary coach’s life, David O. Russell’s treatment seems to focus more on the man and his earlier life with the Raiders.
“Together with the ferocious style, focus, and inspired individualism of Al Davis, owner of the underdog Oakland Raiders, the feature will be about the joy, humanity and genius that was John Madden in a wildly inventive, cool world of the 1970s,” Russell said, seemingly contradicting claims that it’s a Madden NFL origin story.
Regardless of the plot, whether you are a fan of the video game, the NFL, or the man himself, the movie should prove entertaining, even if only to see Cage’s personification of the late football legend. There’s no word on a release date yet, but HR claims the project is “nearing the end zone.” I can’t wait to see a trailer.
Image credit: Nicolas Genin
