Will Ferrell, who is no stranger to playing iconic sportscasters, is in “early talks” to portray Super Bowl-winning football coach-turned-announcer-turned-video game legend John Madden in a biopic. Somewhere out there, Frank Caliendo is fuming.
Deadline reports that Madden “picks up with the legendarily fiery coach after his exit from the NFL, as he teams with Electronic Arts to become the unlikely co-creator of a pioneering video game franchise.”
Madden is based on a script by Cambron Clark and will be directed by David O. Russell, who made one of 2022’s biggest flops. It’s also a throwback, of sorts, to when Ferrell seemingly only starred in sports movies. Madden isn’t a straight-up comedy like Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Blades of Glory, and Semi-Pro, but John Madden was a funny guy with a larger-than-life presence.
This isn’t the first time Madden (who passed away in 2021) and Ferrell have crossed paths. After the actor appeared in Spring Training games for multiple MLB teams on the same night to raise money for charity in 2015, Madden said, “I hate it. That’s a lack of respect. That’s a lack of respect for the game and a [lack of] respect for what players have to do to get where they are.” This will presumably not be covered in the movie, but there better be at least one Avenged Sevenfold song on the soundtrack.
(Via Deadline)