Judd Apatow and Adam Sandler have been friends for years and years, since they were first starting out in the business. I’ve always considered it one of the more interesting friendships in the business, since the kinds of comedy these guys do – Apatow is smart and based on human emotion while Sandler is dumb and based on being angry – are so seemingly different.
Apatow has a collaboration with Sandler coming up this year – You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, which I fear, despite being co-written with the great Robert Smigel – but now it’s been announced that Sandler will be getting right into the Apatow family business. He’s going to be starring in the next Judd-directed movie, alongside Seth Rogen and Mrs. Apatow, Leslie Mann.
Apatow is writing the script himself, and the plot is completely under wraps. Nobody even knows what kind of a role Sandler is going to be playing, or how big the part will be. No matter how big the role, this news still fills me with some trepidation, a feeling I wasn’t expecting to have about an Apatow directed movie for years. I’m trying to think positively – maybe Sandler won’t pull star diva behavior with his friend Apatow and demand that the role be written more to his specifications; maybe this could be like what happened when he submitted himself to the tender loving care of Paul Thomas Anderson. The existence of Punchdrunk Love is what gives me any hope for this film; I’m praying that Apatow can do what PTA did and harness Sandler’s persona and humanize it.