A trailer has been released for "Draft Day," the new Kevin Costner vehicle about an embattled general manager of the Cleveland Browns tasked with making the right decisions on a hugely important day in franchise history.
Also, Jennifer Garner is involved and she's smart and pretty and challenges Costner's character in ways nobody has in a long time. Probably. The movie is scheduled for release next April.
Parts of "Draft Day" were filmed at the actual 2013 NFL Draft held in New York's Radio City Music Hall. I interviewed the guy who plays the hotshot quarterback. He was pleasant and bared more than a passing resemblance to Blaine Gabbert.
Houston Texans running back Arian Foster, who portrays another top prospect, filmed a red carpet scene hours before the real draft began. He didn't want to talk to me but was cool about it.
One personal anecdote: When I first got to Radio City Music Hall, I ducked into a small office where media members were given credentials. Sitting in that office, getting his photo taken for a fake credential, was actor Frank Langella. He plays the owner of the Browns in the movie. I know him mostly as the heavy in "Dave," but he's an Oscar-nominated actor who's starred in roughly 9,000 movies.
Langella got his picture taken and quietly exited the room. A harried production assistant arrived moments later, looking for Langella for whatever reason. The news, delivered by another member of the crew, was not good.
"Frank's gone."
The PA stared ahead blankly while Frank Langella did whatever Frank Langella does when he slips out onto Manhattan's 6th Avenue on a late-April afternoon.
"Draft Day" still was going. But Frank's day was done.
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