Earlier this week Netflix announced its very first original feature film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend. Today they have announced a new deal with comedy star Adam Sandler, that will see four of four feature films starring and produced by Sandler air exclusively on their streaming platform.
The deal comes at a good time for Sandler, with his last movie, Blended, posting the lowest figures for a Happy Madison production since Little Nicky in 2000. Grown Ups 2 aside all of Sandler’s recent efforts have trended down at the box-office, but the star has grossed more than $3 billion globally at the box office.
“People love Adam’s films on Netflix and often watch them again and again. His appeal spans across viewers of all ages – everybody has a favourite film, everyone has a favourite line – not just in the US but all over the world,” said Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos.
“When these fine people came to me with an offer to make four movies for them, I immediately said yes for one reason and one reason only….Netflix rhymes with Wet Chicks,” said Sandler. “Let the streaming begin!!!!”
Under the deal announced today, Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions will work alongside Netflix to develop the four films and to premiere them exclusively to members in the nearly 50 countries where Netflix operates. Current studio film commitments are not included in this deal.
For Netflix and their audience’s sake we can only hope that these four films are better than Sandler’s recent efforts. On the strength of that quote above that may be a stretch…