“I like to see Deb score.”

“Why, John?

“Because first the fat guy spikes it, then the fat guy dances it!”

John Madden was a football player, a great football coach, and an even greater football announcer, but what is underrated is John Madden's ability to play himself. His lines from his role in the football movie “The Replacements,” starring Keanu Reeves, Gene Hackman, and somehow always making my mouth hot, Jon Favreau, have lived rent-free in my head for at least 20 years. Everything John Madden says comes out like John Madden's lines, even if he is reading someone else's script. This is a trait he shares with Nicolas Cage, and I can't think of a more exciting casting choice for a John Madden biopic. [According to “The Hollywood Reporter,” released today, Cage will play the now-deceased announcer in a film that is at least partially “the origin story of one of the greatest video game franchises of all time, the Madden NFL. Frankly, I think it's going to work. The usual sports biopic is all about the glory, and there's no need to spend two hours chronicling Madden's rise to football greatness in his teens/20s/30s. At the same time, an entire movie dedicated to the making of a video game would be just as unwatchable as last year's movie about Air Jordan. Perhaps meeting somewhere in the middle will result in something that is neither conventional nor a pure “ode to the brand.”

Whatever script we see, Cage will bring his true Big Dog energy here. Rather than attempting a perfect impression, he will come up with a performance that is wildly expressive of Madden's voice, embodies Madden's oversized personality, and feels right, whether it is “accurate” or not. In his films The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and Dead By Daylight, he promised, “When you play a Nic Cage survivor, I want you to know that we are one and fused.”

He would surely be equally committed to the scene where he teaches a bunch of computer geeks how to make a football tackle on an Apple II feel real. When he unexpectedly “Boom!” and they will all do a little leap when he unleashes the “Boom! It's not in the script.

I hope someone other than David O. Russell, who has been accused of some pretty gross behavior and bad behavior on movie sets over the years, will direct this movie for Cage. Just a few days ago, George Clooney called Russell a “miserable son of a bitch” during an interview, and he clearly still holds a grudge over a movie they made together 25 years ago. Frankly, it's not the kind of good vibe one would expect from a Madden film.

[16] “One of our greatest and most original actors, Nicolas Cage, will represent the best of the American spirit of originality, fun, and determination that anything is possible as beloved national legend John Madden,” Russell Russell said in a casting announcement about the film.

“Along with the ferocious style, focus, and inspired individualism of Al Davis, owner of the underdog Oakland Raiders, this feature film will portray the joy, humanity, and genius of John Madden in the wildly inventive and cool world of the 1970s.”

No word yet on when the film will be released, but it will certainly be late next year.