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This story originally ran in 2020.
We are republishing it in honor ofVultures Sequels Week.
When most people went on the internet Monday, they werent expecting to care about anotherGrown Upsmovie.
To be clear, no one NO ONE asked him to write this, most of all not Sandler.
The result is like no Sandler movie, while also being very much like all of them.
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Scharpling, an unexpectedly passionate Sandler fan, aspired to be faithful to the Sandmans tone and style.
Though he pokes fun at Sandler and his friends public images, the script is loving.
Once I saw he did, I read it and quickly realized I needed to interview him.
On Wednesday afternoon, two days after it dropped and dominated Comedy Twitter, we spoke.
Check out the script here or atGrownUps3Script.com, and read our conversation below.
What is your history as an Adam Sandler movie watcher?I mustve seenHappy Gilmore30 times in the theater.
I think a lot of people dont know how much of him is in his movies.Yeah, absolutely.
Look, theres obviously bad movies in there.
I dont know, the proof is in the body of work with him.
I dont know where exactly the downside to that is in terms of just quality of life.
So the low grade sometimes, whatever what are you going to do?
And then there was a day where I was like, You know what?
Im actually gonna do that.
I just need to just say I did this and I know the idea works.
I had thought through so much of it, so I just wrote it in three days.
I started off Friday.
It was finished on a Sunday night and showed it to people on Monday morning.
I did it Friday night to Sunday.
Hes probably our most successful mystery because he just doesnt talk.
He just doesnt tell people stuff.
He doesnt have some compulsion to show his playbook to anybody who would look.
He keeps it a mystery, and I think its been to his benefit.
So the idea hung around in my head and I finally did it.
I was just like, This is literally the most fun Ive ever had writing.
If you just stay around, then you lose at some point.
Nobody ever beats show business, show business beats everybody.
It doesnt matter how great you are.
At some point your number comes up, and thats kind of what its about in a way.
Thats how it felt.
Thats what I was kind of channeling into.
Its clear you eviscerated him.
And then other people are like, I read it and its incredibly sad and moving.
And thats one of the things that people are like, Oh man, you nailed his voice.
You got his voice down.
A writer on his show was just like, Holy shit, you wrote for him really well.
The whole thing is about the line between comedy and tragedy, also.
Who wouldnt want to see that?
And to pull off the career that Sandlers pulled off is like … Hes just so smart to know when to change gears.
Do you know who the masked man is?
Is it a specific person?
If not, what sort of person are they?
What is motivating them?Its just the inevitability of failure and irrelevance.
Thats why at the end of the thing, Seth Rogen is getting ready to doNeighbors 3.
Its like his number will come up soon, too.
Time catches up with everyone.
Thats all its about.
This is not meant to be some evisceration of them at least I didnt mean it to be.
Maybe it is and I didnt mean it to be, I dont know.
But it was not by design.
It was meant to just be funny and to create something I would love to see.
Youve, maybe jokingly, said its the best thing youve ever done.
No matter what we do or how successful we are, time catches up to all of us.
And that, in a way, he died also.
When his friends died, he died.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
