Adam Sandler‘s career—filled as it is with bodily functions, funny voices and studio paid vacations that double as movie sets—has been marked periodically by ambitions at more serious fare such as “Punch Drunk Love,” “Spanglish” and “Reign Over Me.” And as those titles suggest, results have been varied. The last time he stepped out of his comfort zone was in 2009 for Judd Apatow‘s “Funny People,” but Sandler is coming in 2014 with a new movie that finds him playing a grown up instead of making a sequel to “Grown Ups.”
EW has the first look at “Win Win” and “The Station Agent” director Thomas McCarthy‘s “The Cobbler” that has Sandler in the lead role. Co-starring Dustin Hoffman, Method Man, Melonie Diaz, Ellen Barkin, Dan Stevens and Steve Buscemi, the story seems somewhat ‘Walter Mitty‘-esque, following a lonely shoe repairman who is suddenly able to literally “walk in another man’s shoes,” opening up his view of the world.
“For a guy who’s known as a funny guy, Adam has a very soulful quality to him,” McCarthy told the magazine. “One of the things that makes Adam right for [the role] is that he does handle the various levels of comedy very well. And he transitions really well from comedy to drama. He can make even the smallest, simplest moments funny.”
We’ll see how it comes together here. No release date yet, but this should be popping up somewhere in the next twelve months.
