We open on our hero, Blade Johnson (Dave Franco) as he receives a phone call from his Madden rival. Blade’s girlfriend has been kidnapped and the only way he can get her back is to beat this rival in Madden NFL 16. And just like that, the stage is set for a no-holds-barred, Bollywood-inspired action movie trailer. Blade assembles a team of Playmakers, including Half Top (Rob Gronkowski), Al Pacino from Scent of a Woman (Colin Kaepernick) and Janet (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). They train, fighting off a gang sent by our villain, and eventually stand face-to-face with their nemesis, ready to settle the score. Blade discovers his girlfriend has been in cahoots with the villain all along. As the news sinks in, Janet storms the scene with a T-Rex, who proceeds to eat the villain before the big game can take place.

We knew the success of this film relied heavily on identifying and referencing key pieces of NFL football and pop culture. We wanted to create content people sought out, and to do that, we had to speak the language of our football-loving, internet-addicted, millennial audience. We started by casting 5 of the biggest stars in the National Football League: Rob Gronkowski, Julio Jones, Antonio Brown, Colin Kaepernick and Coach Rex Ryan. They would give us not only star power, but credibility with NFL fans. We then cast Dave Franco as our leading man, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, better known as “McLovin,” as his sidekick. We packed the spot full of things our audience was used to seeing in culture- the fast cars and big stunts found in films like The Fast and The Furious, a giant T-Rex like those found in Jurassic World, and Bollywood style dance scenes, just because.