It’s been some time that we have seen growth from comedian actor Adam Sandler. These days he’s been comfortable playing various degrees of old characters he’s played in the past. For a lack of a better term, we’ll call these “Sandlerisms.” They’re the same Sandlerisms that got Grown Ups 2 green lit but have critics furrowing their brow at his career trajectory over the last few years.
With the announcement that he would soon be joining his frequent co-star Drew Barrymore in a new comedy, we had hope that Sandler would stop being lazy and try something daring again. Perhaps this was a sign that Sandler would ditch the over-sized polo shirts and plaid shorts and try an actual character on for size? It looks likely.
In addition to his project with Barrymore, it’s been announced that Sandler will dive into an intense dark comedy with director Christopher Columbus. The Hollywood Reporter announced that the new Sandler vehicle is a remake of an Asian film called Hello Ghost. Sandler will be playing a character, who after failing to attempt suicide, begins seeing four ghosts who he must help to fulfill their wishes.
We have a feeling that this film is something to get excited about. Hello Ghost was the ninth highest grossing film in South Korea in 2010, and we all know how well foreign remakes do, specifically The Ring and The Grudge . Although we won’t be seeing Sandler in anything that resembles The Grudge , a comedy with a dark dramatic flair is a nice change of pace.
If anything, his last two films, Jack & Jill and That’s My Boy , have made people forget that, when given the right material, Adam Sandler is a great actor that can take on the task of creating a dark, sympathetic character. For a few years, his creative leaps were unstoppable with fantastic performance in Punch-Drunk Love , Reign Over Me , and Spanglish .
Universal has agreed to pick up the film, and it will most likely be a 2014 release.