Adam Sandler thinks there is an audience for a comedy-western.
What hasn’t Adam Sandler done onscreen? Well, many things, but let’s just focus for the moment on this answer: “A western!” Deadline tells us that Sandler is moving his planned comedy Western, “The Ridiculous 6″ from Sony to Paramount.
It’s not hard to figure out where this is going. The title’s like a funny version of “The Magnificent Seven,” except it’s funny, right? Right? Get it? If you haven’t seen “The Magnificent Seven,” well, you should. As soon as possible. It’s a remake of the Japanese film “The Seven Samurai,” but the American version is set in a small Mexican town being plagued by bandits. They hire a group of gunfighters to protect them and get rid of the bandits. The gunfighters are played by a legendary bunch of big screen tough guys, including Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson and James Coburn.There have been rumors of a remake for a while, but maybe after the Sandler movie, the film gods will figure the original has suffered enough and it will be left alone.
Wow, it’s so much more interesting to talk about “The Magnificent Seven” than Sandler’s plans, but anyway, expect some sort of silly variation on the above plot. Good lord, I guess we’ll probably get stuck with Rob Schneider in the cast.Sandler will write the script with his longtime writing partner Tim Herlihy, who has avoided some of the blame for Sandler’s recent disasters by just taking a producer credit, not writing.
I’ve got to say, I don’t know if movie audiences are that excited by the idea of a parody western. I mean, they haven’t been excited about straight up westerns. So I don’t know what the prospects for this are. Sandler also has a persona problem. What was funny about him when he was in his twenties hasn’t worn well into his forties. There’s a certain age where the man-child schtick wears out for many comedians, and I think he’s past that age. With a good script, you can overcome almost anything, though, so let’s hope that something will come together to make this work.
