Stop the presses, man. Buried in today’s report about Adam Sandler’s next Netflix movie, this one co-starring Jennifer Aniston, is a tiny, “whoa, way to bury the lede” nugget. Sandler is evidently being eyed to replace Jonah Hill in the Safdie brothers’ next film title, “Uncut Gems.” Sandler hasn’t officially signed on, but by the sounds of the report, there have been some discussions.
The picture is a terribly exciting prospect. “Uncut Gems” is a Martin Scorsese-produced Safdie’s picture that takes place in the corrupt world of New York City’s diamond district, with Hill originally set to play the lead. “Uncut Gems” was written by the writer/directors along with their regular collaborator Ronald Bronstein who co-wrote the brother’s last picture, the anxiety-inducing crime drama “Good Time” starring Robert Pattinson. Bronstein has co-written on several of their directorial efforts including “Heaven Knows What” and “Daddy Longlegs.”
Should he take the role, Sandler will continue to confound audiences who struggle to reconcile the fact that the comic can act beyond the goofball role identity he has created for himself should he chose to. Sandler tends to stretch his wings sporadically and only when working with quote-unquote auteurs—Noah Baumbach’s “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)” and Jason Reitman’s “Men, Women & Children” being two of the most recent examples, but this approach has been known to backfire too (see the woefully misguided “The Cobbler” by Tom McCarthy, who incidentally would follow the film with the Oscar-winning “Spotlight”).
The Safdies, who have expressed their interest in working within the studio system, believe it or not, have also been tapped to write and direct a remake of the Eddie Murphy/Nick Nolte crime drama, “48 Hours.” No word on when either film will shoot, but it sounds like “Uncut Gems” will hit first instead of a studio “franchise” picture that likely needs development time and the requirements of studio notes. Sandler will appear next in the Netflix film, “The Week Of” alongside his longtime friend Chris Rock. [Tracking Board]
4/3/2018 Update: News is confirmed via Deadline.