Film follows the football legend from Super Bowl glory to revolutionizing the video game industry with Madden NFL<\/p>\n
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Published Dec 26, 2025 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 3 minute read<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n You can save this article by registering for free here<\/a>. Or sign-in<\/a> if you have an account.<\/p>\n Football fans are getting their first look at Nicolas Cage as Super Bowl-winning coach and colour commentator John Madden in next year\u2019s anticipated biopic on the NFL legend.<\/p>\n Advertisement 2<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.<\/p>\n SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.<\/p>\n REGISTER \/ SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.<\/p>\n THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authors<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Set for release next November, Madden is written and directed by David O. Russell (The Fighter, American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook and Amsterdam<\/a>). The film will follow Madden\u2019s career as a Hall of Fame coach for the Oakland Raiders as well as his transition into broadcasting and becoming the face of Madden NFL Football, one of the biggest-selling video game titles of all time.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n A synopsis on the YouTube video<\/a> of the teaser reads: \u201cInspired by a true story, Madden follows the football legend from Super Bowl glory with the Raiders to revolutionizing the game with Madden NFL.\u201d<\/p>\n Cage will be joined in the film by Christian Bale<\/a>, who plays longtime Raiders owner Al Davis, as well as Kathryn Hahn (as his wife Virginia), John Mulaney (as Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins), Sienna Miller (as Carol Davis) and Shane Gillis (who will play an unnamed original character close to the Madden family).<\/p>\n Your Midday Sun<\/p>\n Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Advertisement 3<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n In his decade-long coaching career, he racked up a 103-32-7 regular-season record, and his .759 winning percentage is tops among NFL coaches with more than 100 games.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople always ask, are you a coach or a broadcaster or a video game guy?\u201d he said when elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m a coach, always been a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n Madden is regarded as one of the best coaches in NFL history and was one of the most recognizable broadcast faces who commented on the sport. He appeared on TV until his retirement following the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 27-23 win over the Arizona Cardinals at Super Bowl XLIII in 2009.<\/p>\n He died at the age of 85 of an undisclosed illness in 2021.<\/p>\n Madden is honoured during the NFL\u2019s annual Thanksgiving Day triple-header and was notorious for dishing out turkey legs and an awarding a \u201cturducken\u201d \u2014 a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey \u2014 to the MVP of the game he called on that day.<\/p>\n Advertisement 4<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n We apologize, but this video has failed to load.<\/p>\n Play VideoDirector hails Cage as \u2018one of our greatest actors\u2019<\/p>\n In a statement announcing the film back in 2024, Russell said that Madden will explore all facets of the beloved personality.<\/p>\n \u201cNicolas 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,\u201d said Russell, who wrote the script after an earlier version was penned by Cambron Clark.<\/p>\n \u201cTogether 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement 5<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Cage has been nominated twice for an Academy Award, winning one Oscar for his role in 1995\u2019s Leaving Las Vegas.<\/p>\n He has veered between big-budget studio films (The Rock, Con-Air) and smaller indie projects (Longlegs). In 2022, Cage played a cash-strapped caricature of himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.<\/p>\n Cage also won acclaim for his role as a renowned chef who hunts for his pig after she is kidnapped in 2021\u2019s Pig.<\/p>\n Speaking to Postmedia in 2022<\/a>, Cage called the role one of his best.<\/p>\n \u201cI loved that movie. I think with that movie I finally had entered the room. That movie works on balance as a film, as a poem and as a folk song. I think the performance \u2014 for me \u2014 it was closest I got to what I like about Ernest Hemingway,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n mdaniell@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n![\"Christian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/nicolas-cage-christian-bale-madden-movie.jpg\")
Christian Bale and Nicolas Cage in ‘Madden.’ Photo by Amazon MGM StudiosArticle content<\/p>\n![\"Toronto](\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/20.2.3\/websites\/images\/identity\/logo-identity-tsun.svg\"){kind=logo}
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