August // 2026
Nicolas Cage wore a fat suit at a Marietta Hot Dog stand: The filming locations of Madden
Madden
David O. Russell described his ambition in one sentence: "The feature will be about the joy, humanity and genius that was John Madden in a wildly inventive, cool world of the 1970s." To capture that world, he took his cameras to Atlanta, Georgia — and never left the state.
Madden began principal photography on April 24, 2025, in Atlanta, with production based at Shadowbox Studios under the working title Santa Maria. Filming ran from May through November 30, 2025, before moving into post-production.
The film chronicles John Madden's journey from Super Bowl-winning head coach of the Oakland Raiders to the most recognisable voice in football broadcasting and eventually the face of EA Sports' Madden NFL franchise.
Nicolas Cage plays Madden. Christian Bale plays Raiders owner Al Davis. Kathryn Hahn plays Virginia Madden. John Mulaney plays Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts. Sienna Miller plays Carol Davis. Robert Richardson — three-time Oscar-winning cinematographer — handled the camera. The estimated production budget is around $75 million.
Center Parc Stadium
The production's most significant outdoor location is Center Parc Stadium in Atlanta — the venue originally built as Centennial Olympic Stadium for the 1996 Games, then converted into Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves, before becoming Georgia State's football home.
In June 2025, the stadium stood in for the iconic Oakland Coliseum — the Raiders' longtime home — for the film's football sequences. A first-look image released by Amazon MGM Studios shows Cage and Bale on the football field, each wearing Super Bowl rings — a direct nod to the Raiders' Super Bowl XI victory in January 1977.
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Marietta
In April 2025, the production crew was spotted outside St. James Episcopal Church just off Marietta Square — a handsome historic church in the heart of one of Atlanta's most preserved 19th-century town centres.
According to the Atlanta Filming Instagram account, the production shot on location for nearly a week at 325 Rolling Rock Road in Marietta, Georgia — a residential address in the broader Marietta area.
The location that drew the most attention was the least glamorous. Brandi's World Famous Hot Dogs in Marietta — a local institution in the greater Atlanta area — temporarily closed from May 29 to June 3, 2025, for the production. It was here, in and around the hot dog stand, that Page Six published photographs of Nicolas Cage in full John Madden transformation — fat suit, prosthetics, the legendary Madden proportions — looking, as the headline put it, "unrecognisable."
Atlanta as Oakland
The story spans the Oakland Raiders of the 1970s, the NBC broadcast world, and early Silicon Valley. None of it was filmed in California. While the film is set against the backdrop of the Raiders and the Bay Area, production utilised Georgia's local studios and soundstages for the shoot rather than on-location filming in California.
Madden premieres on Amazon Prime Video on November 26, 2026 — Thanksgiving — a date chosen deliberately, given Madden's long and beloved association with NFL Thanksgiving broadcasts.
SOURCE
Filming in Georgia // Marietta.com // Atlanta-filming Instagram // IMDb
CREDITS
© Amazon MGM Studios, Escape Artists, SMAC Entertainment, Skydance Sport
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