If someone gave me infinite guesses as to who would be laying John Madden in a movie about his life, I wouldn’t have guessed who was just chosen to play him. Any guesses? Yeah, well, you’re wrong.
It’s Nicolas Cage.
Variety reports that Amazon MGM is backing the film and Director David O. Russell has tabbed Cage to play the iconic Hall of Fame Raiders coach and video game mogul.
“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,” O. Russell said in a statement. “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.”
No knock on Cage. He may end up doing a great job in the role. But Cage is pretty much a character himself. And that character shows up in pretty much every role he ever plays. It’s one that’s very different than that of John Madden.
With Cage getting this role, I can’t help but think of a certain scene from The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent in which Cage plays a fictionalized version of himself going through a bit of a crisis in his acting career.
In the scene, he wants a role in a film so bad, he corners the director at the valet stand at a restaurant in Hollywood and does a brilliantly terrible impromptu audition for the lead role in the Director’s next film.
If you have seen it, you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you haven’t seen that movie, you need to see that movie. He and Pedro Pascal are electric and hilarious together.
At very least, it will be impossible not to be insanely curious to see what Cage can do with this role. Because I am finding it impossible to imagine.
