Are you ready for some shocking news that’s about to blast you out of your damn seat? Hang on to the edge of your desk, chumps, because it’s about to get postively mind blowing up in here. Adam Sandler – get this – is starring in a new movie with – you’re not going to even guess this one, don’t even try – Kevin James.
Still with me? I know it might take awhile to sink in. But the good news is that what they’re teaming up for is pretty exciting. The Happy Madison venture is called Pixels, an adaptation of a beloved short film by writer-director Patrick Jean in which famous 1980s video game characters come to life and wreak havoc on New York City. The now big-budgeted comedy is taking the small-scaled story and amping it up into something along the veins of Ghostbusters, reportedly – and with King of Kong director Seth Gordon on board for the production, there’s plenty of video game expertise in the room to help expand the film as far as it needs to go.
It’s also good that Gordon’s around because the heroes of Pixels consist of a group of video game experts who get recruited by the government to take down the out of control pixelated terrors. It’s not clear yet what methods Sandler and James will take to rid the city of pixelated evil, but either way their characters are presumably wacky, bumbling and have absurdly hot wives who put up with their shenanigans without asking questions. Let’s give a warm welcome to a newcomer to the Happy Madison club, Josh Gad, who is also in talks to star – though it’s not clear who he’ll be playing.
Sandler’s Just Go With It love interest (someday we’ll talk about how laughable it was that she was ever cast as the frumpy undesirable second choice…someday) Jennifer Aniston is circling the film as well for the female lead, but scheduling conflicts for Mean Moms (the kind of sort of not sequel to Mean Girls where she plays a suburban mom dealing with terrible adults) may have her unable to commit to making out with Sandler again.
Pixels is a geniunely cool short film – and short, clocking in under three minutes – in which pixelated video game stars like Space Invaders and Donkey Kong suddenly emerge over the sky of Manhattan and destroy everything in its path either through turning them pixelated and candy-colored too, or by eliminating them through their own powers. It’s pretty hard to take the subway if Pacman’s eaten it. Now, taking that micro-look of a concept and fleshing it out into a full-length comedy is going to be the real challenge. A script by Tim Herlihy and Tim Dowling (Just Go With It) is responsible for that. Now, how many fart jokes can you make about a flying tetris piece, because Sandler is patiently waiting for an answer.
Related Topics: Adam Sandler
