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As arguably the biggest draw on the world’s most popular streaming service, Adam Sandler is pretty much free to do whatever he wants under the terms of his Netflix development deal. For the most part that’s changed nothing about his output in the slightest, with the actor and producer still collaborating with the same writers, directors and co-stars he’s been teaming up with for years if not decades, while reviews remain tepid and viewership figures high.
However, upcoming basketball comedy Hustle marks a change of pace for the Sandman for a number of different reasons. First of all, there’s no sign of Kevin James, Rob Schneider, David Spade, Steve Buscemi or Allen Covert among the ensemble, marking just the third time since 1995 that none of the aforementioned five names have appeared in one of his comedy vehicles, unless of course they’ve got uncredited cameos.
Netflix also approached Happy Madison with the script in the hopes Sandler would agree to star after acquiring it from Legendary, a reversal of the typical model where the platform signs off on scripts developed by the 54 year-old’s company. Lastly, the star revealed in a new interview that he changed the setting of the movie at the streamer’s request, simply because Netflix isn’t available in China.
“It was written originally that I find a player in China and somehow, Netflix is not in China. So they were like, ‘Would you guys please make it that we find someone in Latin America or Europe?’. So the next thing you know, I’m in Majorca.”
Hustle finds Sandler’s Stanley Beren trying to reignite his career as a basketball recruiter by bringing an unknown overseas player into the NBA, with Memphis Grizzlies forward Juancho Hernangómez starring as the talent in question. Robert Duvall, Ben Foster and Queen Latifah lend support, and while there’s no release date confirmed as of yet, we all know it’s going to be a massive hit.