Nicolas Cage is set to play an iconic NFL coach in David O. Russell’s next film

Cage will play John Madden during his time coaching the Oakland Raiders.

By Joe Allen Updated August 16, 2024

Nicolas Cage at the Renfield premiere. — Shutterstock

The Nicolas Cage resurgence continues. According to reporting at Indiewire, Cage, who just played the titular serial killer in Longlegs in a delightfully over the top performance, is now set to play NFL coach John Madden in director David O. Russell’s next film.

The film, which is titled Madden, is set up at Amazon MGM Studios, and Cage will play the legendary football coach in the 1970s, when he was coaching the Oakland Raiders. Madden would go on to a successful commentary career, and the popular video game franchise focused on the NFL takes its name from him.

Further plot details for the film have yet to be revealed, so it’s unclear how much ground the movie may cover. Madden died in 2021, but had an outsized impact on America’s most popular sport.

“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. 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,” Russell said in a statement.

Russell wrote the original screenplay based on an earlier version by Cambron Clark.

Madden is one of several projects that Cage has lined up in the coming years. He’s working with Amazon on a live action version of his Spider-Noir character from the Spiderverse films, and he’ll also star in The Surfer, which first premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Contributor

Joe Allen is a freelance culture writer based in upstate New York. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The…

Culture

HBO head says ‘Euphoria’ season 3 is still on track to start filming in January

'Euphoria' is set to film its third season in January of 2025.

Zendaya in Euphoria.

We live in an era of TV where shows go off the air, and it's hard to say when, if ever, they might come back. Yellowstone's fifth season has been divided by more than a year, and some shows, like HBO's Euphoria, have been off the air even longer. Part of the reason for those long delays is because most of the cast have become major movie stars, but what's just as important is that the show's creator, Sam Levinson, has been having some creative differences with HBO.

It seems like those issues might be starting to resolve themselves, though, because according to a recent interview that HBO head Casey Bloys gave with Deadline, the new season should start filming in January.

Culture

What’s the best humidity for cigars? What RH is good?

Cigar shop humidor with lots of brands.

Relative Humidity or RH is how you measure the humidity of a space, or in the context of cigars, the level of humidity inside a humidor. You see, cigars must be stored under ideal conditions. The goal is to keep the right amount of humidity or moisture inside the cigar so the tobacco leaves are preserved correctly. This also helps the cigars retain their natural oils which is a big part of what provides flavor while you're smoking them.

Cigars should be stored inside a humidor, and while they can pretty much last indefinitely while stored properly, some cigars do not age well, meaning you'll want to smoke them sooner rather than later. But as long as you're keeping cigars for an extended period they need to be inside a humidor, or some kind of humidified container -- tupperdors count, too -- with the right humidity. One of the easiest ways to maintain the right humidity inside a container is to use Boveda packs. They come in a variety of RH points from 60% up to 75%.

Culture

The 12 best sci-fi shows to stream on Netflix right now

These are our favorite sci-fi series on Netflix to binge

Stranger Things

A great sci-fi show can help you imagine a different world, even as it says something about our own. There are plenty of sci-fi movies on Netflix that are well worth checking out, but you shouldn't discount all the great stuff that Netflix has on the TV side. To find the best show for you, we've done the hard work of looking through all of Netflix's many options to find the ones that really showcase what great science fiction can be. Below are the greatest sci-fi TV shows on Netflix. Once you’re done watching any of these sci-fi TV shows, you may want to check out the best sci-fi movies of all time.

Dark (2017)