The NFL Draft was held just two weeks ago, and while it is tempting to just spend the rest of this story talking about all the surprise picks and equally surprising snubs, this is Cinema Blend, not Nick’s Football Blog. Luckily, the Draft is where production began on Ivan Reitman’s next film, the football comedy Draft Day, which added a slew of actors just before the Draft started. If you’re like me, you figured that the film’s casting process was over, but that isn’t the case at all.
Superman has joined the film, or at least Smallville’s Tom Welling has, according to Deadline. Welling hasn’t been in a feature film since the one-two punch of 2005’s Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and the remake of The Fog, but he appeared for ten seasons as Clark Kent on CW’s Smallville, and he’ll be playing secret service agent Roy Kellerman in Peter Landesman’s upcoming JFK drama Parkland.
For Draft Day, Welling will play veteran Brian Drew, a past-his-prime quarterback whose career is in question. I’m assuming he plays for the Cleveland Browns, the team at the film’s center, though the Deadline story doesn’t make that clear. Kevin Costner plays the Browns’ GM, whose main goal is acquiring the first pick of the NFL Draft and saving football in his city. I’ll go ahead and also assume that a Brian Drew trade will be at the center of the Browns getting that first round pick. I just hope he’s not as arrogant as Corbin Bernsen’s Roger Dorn in Major League.
The film also stars Frank Langella as the Browns’ owner, Jennifer Garner as Costner’s secretary and Ellen Burstyn as Costner’s mother. The surrounding cast includes Timothy Simons, Chad Boseman, Terry Crews, Sean Combs and Rosanna Arquette. The cast is nearly the size of a starting lineup, so let’s hope they cooperate nearly as well.
