Madden (film)

Madden is an upcoming American biographical sports drama film directed by David O. Russell and written by Russell from an earlier version by Cambron Clark. The film stars Nicolas Cage as John Madden, alongside Christian Bale, John Mulaney, Kathryn Hahn, Sienna Miller, and Shane Gillis.

Madden
Directed by	David O. Russell
Written by	David O. Russell Cambron Clark
Produced by	Todd Black Jason Blumenthal David O. Russell Jonathan Shukat Steve Tisch
Starring	Nicolas Cage Christian Bale John Mulaney Kathryn Hahn Sienna Miller Shane Gillis
Cinematography	Robert Richardson
Edited by	Alan Baumgarten
Production companies	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Escape Artists SMAC Entertainment
Distributed by	Amazon MGM Studios
Country	United States
Language	English

Premise

Depicts the life of football legend John Madden and his involvement in development of the Madden NFL video game series.

Cast

• Nicolas Cage as John Madden
• Christian Bale as Al Davis
• John Mulaney as Trip Hawkins
• Kathryn Hahn as Virginia Madden, John's wife
• Sienna Miller as Carol Davis, Al's wife
• Shane Gillis

Production

It was announced in May 2023 that Will Ferrell had entered early negotiations to star in the film as John Madden, with David O. Russell set to direct.^[1]

However, in August, Nicolas Cage would be cast to play Madden.^[2] In April 2025, Christian Bale was announced to portray Davis, while John Mulaney, Kathryn Hahn, and Sienna Miller were reported to be in talks to join the cast.^[3] In May, Shane Gillis joined the cast.^[4]

Principal photography began on April 24, 2025, in Atlanta.^[5]

Controversy

In May 2025, several actors and crew members on the set of the film allegedly walked off after Russell used a racial slur, and also tried to insert usage of the slur into the script dialogue, then "belittled" other cast and crew members over objections to his using the slur.^[6]