Netflix signs up to film more of Adam Sandler's paid vacations
All the talk about Adam Sandler recently may have been centered around his fantastic turn in the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems, but Netflix is keeping its eye squarely on the most important facet of the actor and comic’s career: making sure his lavishly funded excuses for paid vacations with his friends keep getting made.
Deadline reports the streaming service is re-upping its agreement with Sandler and his Happy Madison Productions, adding four more movies to their current arrangement. It’s not yet clear if these vacations will take place on a lovely sailing vessel, a beachfront paradise, a rustic nature wonderland, or some other destination not yet visited during the films he’s already made for Netflix. But that’s part of the fun of watching the results when the former SNL performer and reliably bankable comedy star call up his buddies and invite them to spend six weeks somewhere nice, in exchange for spending a little time in front of the cameras to recite some words and maybe do a few pratfalls each day, y’know, nothing too strenuous.
Of course, Netflix has good reason to want to continue paying for Sandler’s trips to whatever luxe getaway location he chooses: the service reported that Murder Mystery, the surprisingly not-so-bad comedy from last year, was Netflix’s most popular title of 2019 in the United States. Hell, since the beginning of their partnership with 2015's The Ridiculous 6, subscribers have apparently spent more than 2 billion hours sitting through the various consequences of Sandler’s production deal with Netflix. That is roughly two billion hours more than the amount of time spent putting real thought into making those films. (Also, his tweet about not getting an Oscar nom, in which he referred to himself as “Sandman,” was funnier than any of those recent Happy Madison Productions.)
Sandler already has two upcoming projects for Netflix: an animated comedy he’ll write and star in, and Hubie Halloween, a family comedy about “Hubie Dubois who, despite his devotion to his hometown of Salem, MA (and its legendary Halloween celebration), is a figure of mockery for kids and adults alike. But this year, something really is going bump in the night, and it’s up to Hubie to save Halloween.” No word yet if Hubie is going to be shot on location or if beautiful Florence, Italy will serve as a logical stand-in.