For Netflix, at least, it seems there is no such thing as too much Adam Sandler. The streaming service has signed up the much maligned comic for a further quartet of films, to go with the four it has already financed. According to Deadline, Netflix will finance and produce the films, which will be available exclusively on the platform.
“Love working with Netflix and collaborating with them,” Sandler said in a statement. “I love how passionate they are about making movies and getting them out there for the whole world to see. They’ve made me feel like family and I can’t thank them enough for their support.”
Netflix first got into the Sandler business in 2014, when it signed a four-film deal with his Happy Madison production company. The service has so far released two of those films: western comedy The Ridiculous 6 (2015) and action-adventure The Do-Over (2016). Both films were widely panned by critics, and The Ridiculous 6 was also protested by Native American extras over its depiction of Apache culture.
Netflix does not make viewing figures available to the public, but says that Sandler’s films have been popular with audiences. Last January, the company’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos revealed that The Ridiculous 6 had more viewers in its first 30 days than any other film on the platform.
Sandler’s latest Netflix effort, Sandy Wexler, will be available on the platform from 14 April. Intended as a homage to Sandler’s longtime manager Sandy Wernick, the comedy charts the rise of a hapless but dedicated Hollywood manager, who finds success late in his career when he stumbles upon a talented singer. Jennifer Hudson, Chris Rock and Judd Apatow are listed among the cast, along with long-time Sandler collaborators Kevin James and Rob Schneider.
This year also sees Sandler make a rare sojourn into indie cinema, starring alongside Ben Stiller, Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman in Noah Baumbach’s Yeh Din Ka Kissa. Sandler’s last indie, Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2002 romance Punch Drunk Love, received widespread plaudits from critics. “Sandler, liberated from the constraints of formula, reveals unexpected depths as an actor,” the late Roger Ebert wrote of the movie.
