How is recently retired quarterback Tom Brady staying busy in his post-playing career? Besides tweeting at Matthew Stafford and selling $75 t-shirts on his website, the 44-year-old has signed on to produce as well as act in 80 for Brady, a Paramount vehicle scheduled for production later this year starring Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Lily Tomlin and Rita Moreno. The film’s plot is as contrived as you could imagine, centered around four friends who encounter various misadventures on their way to Super Bowl LI in Houston.
Countless athletes have gone the Hollywood route, though few have been successful in that realm, with most falling flat on their face. From LeBron James’ widely-panned Space Jam (a colossal failure earning him four Razzie nominations) to Shaquille O’Neal’s similarly ill-fated Kazaam, the list goes on and on. Upon the movie’s announcement Wednesday, many were quick to mock Brady’s involvement, dismissing the project as a half-baked vanity project in service of its impossibly famous namesake.
To Brady’s credit, he seems to have assembled a strong cast with Academy Award winners Fonda and Field. The best actors are able to elevate their source material, but even for a pair of Hollywood veterans, that may be too big an ask.
Brady’s ambition and poise served him well on the gridiron, though from the brief glimpses we’ve seen of him as an actor, making cameo appearances in Entourage and Ted 2 (both helmed by Mark Wahlberg), it’s hard to tell if those traits will translate to the big screen.
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