‘Madden’ Trailer: Nicolas Cage Becomes the NFL’s Most Iconic Coach for David O. Russell

Football season is in full swing — and even if a quarterback injury has already ended your team’s season, you at least have a fall filled with football movies to look forward to. The most notable might be “Madden,” David O. Russell‘s NFL biopic, which casts Nicolas Cage as one of the sport’s most iconic figures. Few personalities in sports history are as synonymous with their league as John Madden is with the NFL. As the head coach of the Oakland Raiders for nearly a decade, he secured his legacy as one of the game’s great minds, winning the franchise’s first Super Bowl and retiring with the greatest winning percentage of all time. He then spent the next four decades as a beloved color commentator, known for his distinct catchphrases and a love of Thanksgiving turducken. And of course, he licensed his name to a series of video games that remains one of the biggest properties in sports gaming, even years after his death. His fruitful life should give Russell plenty to work with, and he lined up a cast that anyone would love to see in their own biopic. In addition to Cage, “Madden” stars Christian Bale as iconic Raiders owner Al Davis and an ensemble that includes Kathryn Hahn, John Mulaney, Sienna Miller, Joel Murray, and Shane Gillis. “Madden” is co-written by Russell and Cambron Clark. Frequent Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino collaborator Robert Richardson notably serves as cinematographer on the film. Producers include Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Jonathan Shukat, and Steve Tisch. At one point, it appeared that “Madden” could be one of Cage’s final movie roles, as he expressed a desire to wind down his film career and focus on television. But in a recent interview with IndieWire, he explained that making his TV debut on “Spider-Noir” restored his interest in film acting. “Doing a season of television makes me interested in movies again. So I knew I had to try something else to reinvigorate and restimulate my process,” he said. “And now I’ve done this and I’m happy with the results and I feel like I’ve learned something. I also feel like I have a little more confidence and I could see myself making more movies again.” An Amazon MGM release, “Madden” opens in select theaters on Friday, November 11 before streaming on Prime Video the following week. Watch the trailer below.