Nicolas Cage & Christian Bale Commit To The Bit For John Madden Biopic

• Nicolas Cage and Christian Bale are giving Dwayne Johnson a run for his money with their own eyebrow-raising screen transformations in Amazon MGM Studios’ Madden.
• The David O. Russell biopic follows the NFL Hall of Famer’s “remarkable journey” from injured player to Super Bowl-winning Oakland Raiders coach and ubiquitous football media personality.
• Madden release date: TBA.

There had been earlier hints that Nicolas Cage underwent a dramatic makeup chair process for Amazon MGM Studio’s John Madden biopic. But the true extent of how much he’s morphed into the real-life NFL legend – and co-star Christian Bale as Oakland Raiders team owner Al Davis – has only just been illustrated by the first-look image of Madden. Super Bowl rings and all.

Written and directed by the Academy Award-nominated David O. Russell, the film follows Madden’s journey: from his Super Bowl-winning partnership with Al Davis and the Raiders as a coach, to creating Madden NFL, and becoming “one of the most iconic voices in football history.”

Having never recorded a losing season, to this day, John Madden holds the highest winning percentage among NFL head coaches who notched at least 100 games; and remains the Raiders’ franchise leader as head coach with the most victories (103).

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The roles of Madden and Al Davis have bounced around to a few candidates over the past few years. Initially, Will Ferrell was in negotiations to portray the titular character, before it was passed on to Australia’s own Hugh Jackman, and now Nic Cage. Davis, on the other hand, was once offered to Tom Hanks.

Nicolas Cage and Christian Bale are joined by beloved comedian John Mulaney as Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, Kathryn Hahn as Virginia Madden, and Sienna Miller as Carol Davis. This marks Bale’s fourth collaboration with David O. Russell after The Fighter (for which the former won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar), American Hustle, and most recently, Amsterdam (which also starred John David Washington and Margot Robbie).

While cameras have begun rolling, kicking off principal photography in Atlanta last month, a release date for Amazon MGM’s Madden has yet to be confirmed.