Boom! Amazon’s new movie about the life of former Raiders coach, football announcer, and video-game namesake John Madden has cast none other than the prolifically over-acting Nicolas Cage to star in the title role.

Francis Ford Coppola's nephew and occasional SF resident Nicolas Cage is enjoying a nice career rebound after his sellout National Treasure, Face/Off, and Ghost Rider phase (and corresponding tax problems and public intoxication issues). His recent films Pig, Renfield, and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent were critically very well-received, and his recent horror film Longlegs just became the top-grossing indie movie of 2024.

His next role? Stunningly, as Deadline has reported, Cage has signed on to play NFL legend John Madden. Once an Oakland Raiders head coach, Madden went on to become a popular football announcer and Madden NFL video game consultant, and was a longtime resident of Pleasanton.

The film is being produced by Amazon MGM, so it could be that the film will go directly to Prime Video. It’s set to be directed by David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle).

"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," Russell said in a press release. "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."  

So who will play former Raiders owner Al Davis? Willem DeFoe? Al Pacino? We don' know, as none of the other cast members have been announced for the film.

John Madden coached the Oakland Raiders from 1969 to 1978, having played high school football in Daly City and college ball briefly at the College of San Mateo. He won a Super Bowl for the Raiders in 1977, and remains their all-time winningest coach. He would move up to the broadcast booth in 1979, and would call football games for CBS, Fox, ABC, and NBC.

But the film will apparently focus on his transition to helping create the popular Madden NFL video game franchise that catapulted the small San Mateo video game company Electronic Arts into an international juggernaut. Madden passed away in 2021 at the age of 85.

There is no release date announced for the film, which has not started shooting.

Related: Nicholas Cage To Be Subject Of Local Hipster Art Show [SFist]

Images: (Left) nicolas genin via Wikimedia Commons, (Right) EA Sports