This year’s disruption means Adam Sandler isn’t sure when the follow-up to Uncut Gems will happen.
Ever since the release of Uncut Gems in 2019, we’ve been patiently waiting for the Safdie brothers to begin their next collaboration with Adam Sandler. The Netflix release managed that remarkable feat (for a Netflix film at least) of becoming a buzzy phenomenon, not least because of a remarkable leading performance from Sandler himself.
Bloody stressful film to watch, though.
However, all involved don’t seem to have enjoyed a great deal of luck getting their next collaboration to happen. Even before the actors’ strike happened, the Safdies and Adam Sandler were struggling to schedule the project, with Benny Safdie’s career as an actor (as well as a director) reportedly making things trickier.
Benny Safdie was said to have departed the project in May of this year, leaving his brother Josh to helm the project on his own, but proceedings were further complicated by the actors’ strike which ran from July to October.
It doesn’t help that the film needs to shoot during the US baseball season too, given that Ben Affleck’s character is set to be a retired baseball pitcher who attempts a comeback’.
Affleck is set to star alongside Sandler with Megan Thee Stallion, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Steve Harvey all featuring too.
Sandler – who is reportedly also signed up to star alongside Brad Pitt in Noah Baumbach’s next project for Netflix – had this to say to Collider: “We’re not sure right now. We kind of missed the opportunity of baseball season because of the strike. A lot of it was gonna be shot during live baseball. So it’s gonna take a minute. We’re figuring it all out right now. I’m not sure when it’s gonna happen.”
Lining up the schedules of those talents is not going to be easy in a post-strike world, not to mention aligning with a baseball season too. The latter begins in late March though, so perhaps we’ll hear something before then. Either way, we’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it.
