Given that one of Adam Sandler's most revered performances in recent years had very much to do with basketball, it's not surprising that he's doing it again for his next movie. Sandler's love of sports, in general, is probably why he's heavily involved in his next movie Hustle.
Sandler released the trailer for the upcoming movie that's slated to be released both in theaters and on Netflix less than a month from now. In the movie, he plays a scout for the Philadelphia 76ers who is scouting an international player, played by current NBA player Juancho Hernangomez, to bring him overseas to play for the Sixers. The Hustle trailer delves into the hectic life he has both as a family man and as an international basketball scout, as well as what Hernangomez has to go through himself.
The upcoming Sandler vehicle will star veteran actors like Queen Latifah, Ben Foster, and Robert Duvall. It will also feature several current and former NBA players like Hernangomez, Boban Marjanovic, Kenny Smith, Anthony Edwards, Aaron Gordon, Trae Young, Jordan Clarkson and Mark Jackson. To make the film look more authentic, it will also include players and personnel who were playing for the 76ers when the movie was filmed, including Tobias Harris, Seth Curry (currently a Brooklyn Net), Tyrese Maxey, Matisse Thybulle, and Doc Rivers. The film will also be produced by NBA legend LeBron James.
It's hard to make a sports movie stand out among other sports movies because they usually revolve around the main characters winning the game they're involved in. Usually, the best sports movies of all-time have to do with issues that go beyond the sport itself like Remember the Titans (Racism), Moneyball (Economics), and the Rocky films (Redemption). It appears this movie will dive into another side of sports by going in-depth on the struggles of being a scout and a player, which hasn't been touched upon much in Hollywood.
Should this movie accomplish what it's sought to do, and its reception is positive, it may turn over a new leaf for sports movies in general. Instead of being about whether or not our protagonist wins the sport he or she plays, it may be more about their personal life and the struggles they had behind the scenes either getting there or staying on top. I, Tonya potentially pioneered this trend when they humanized the infamous figure skater Tonya Harding by reflecting on how abused she was leading up to becoming an Olympic skater while also confronting her involvement with the Nancy Kerrigan attack head-on.
But the real headline here is that it appears Sandler truly is trying as an actor again. Throughout the 2010s, it was clear that he didn't really care about how good his movies turned out as long as they made money. It wasn't that movies like Grown Ups, Grown Ups 2, That's My Boy, Blended, and Pixels were bad. It's that he clearly didn't care at all when he made them. Between Uncut Gems, The Meyerowitz Stories, and Hustle, it's clear Sandler is putting the effort in again. That's all his audience has ever wanted from him.
Hustle will be released both in select theaters and Netflix on June 8th, 2022.
Source: Adam Sandler/Twitter