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Earlier this year, it was announced that David O. Russell of Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle fame will be directing a movie about John Madden. The film reportedly will focus on the late Super Bowl winning coach and broadcaster’s massive video game franchise.
It was reported at that time that Nicolas Cage will be playing the Hall of Fame football coach and broadcaster in the film, which will delve into the origin story of the Madden NFL video games. Now, we have another big name attached to the project: Christian Bale.
According to Jeff Sneider of The InSneider, Bale is not only going to be in the Madden movie, he will be playing one of the key figures in John Madden’s life: Al Davis.
Al Davis was the owner of the Raiders football franchise for 39 years that John Madden coached to a win at Super Bowl XI in 1977. How Davis figured in to the Madden NFL video game franchise’s origin story remains to be seen.
Christian Bale won an Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for the 2011 film The Fighter about the life of professional boxer Micky Ward. He played Ward’s older half-brother and former boxer Dicky Eklund.
Cage also won an Academy Award, with his coming for his portrayal of Ben Sanderson in the 1995 film Leaving Las Vegas, which was based on the 1990 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name.
“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,” David O. Russell said in a statement announcing the casting of Cage.
“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.”
The John Madden film is being produced by Amazon MGM Studios. No release date has been made public yet.