This is the third such extension for the Billy Madison actor from the network, which began their partnership with Sandler beginning on 2015’s extremely dubious Western parody, The Ridiculous 6 (complete with obligatory Rob Schneider cameo), leading all the way up to last year’s Murder Mystery (co-starring Jennifer Aniston), astoundingly, Netflix’s most successful release of 2019 (with over 83 million streams).
Sandler is currently riding atop a wave of widespread critical acclaim (and Oscar snubs) with the Safdie Brother’s Uncut Gems, which also saw partial financial backing from Netflix, but anyone thinking that his next project will hold to this template have not really paid attention to the path of his whiplash-inducing film career.
It’s worth noting that Sandler followed-up his critically-loved Punch-Drunk Love (2002) with Mr. Deeds that same year, and the reasonably well-received Reign Over Me came immediately before the excruciating, Kevin James co-starring cringe-fest I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
True to form, his next project will be the recently-wrapped Hubie Halloween, the Steven Brill (Little Nicky, Drillbit Taylor)-directed comedy that also co-stars... Kevin James and (are you sitting down?) Rob Schneider, as if Uncut was now a fond, faded memory.
Hubie Halloween will likely see an early fall release, and Uncut Gems (currently streaming internationally) hits Netflix in the US this summer.