This story has been updated with new details and republished.
2024 marks five years since the Safdie Brothers blessed us with Uncut Gems, the Adam Sandler-starring, nerve-shredding New York movie thriller that became the jewel (pun intended) in A24’s crown. We’ve been desperate to see these minds meet again, and things looked positive up until quite recently: Safdie x Sandler 2.0 is a baseball card collecting movie, rumoured to be set in the 90s, produced by Netflix and potentially co-starring Benicio del Toro, Ben Affleck and iconic rapper Megan Thee Stallion! Or at least, that was the case — now, in a new interview with Benny Safdie, it was revealed that Josh and Benny were parting ways as a directing duo, and the card collecting movie is the first casualty.
In an interview with Variety, Benny revealed that he was bowing out of the film, which he had been set to co-direct based on a script written by Josh alone. In the interview, it’s claimed that Benny wasn’t a “meaningful” part of the creative process, and that the film was, in Benny’s words, “on pause”.
So it looks like we might have to wait a bit longer for this movie, if it ever materialises at all. In case it does, here’s everything else we know about the film so far.
What’s the movie about?
Speaking exclusively to Entertainment Weekly in 2022, Adam Sandler said that he was “going to do another movie with the Safdie brothers”, but stopped short of sharing any details about the project. “I don’t know what I can tell you, but it’s gonna be very exciting. It’s different. But I don’t want them to ever say, ‘What the hell did you tell him that for?’ So I’ll just let them [do the talking].”
However, in a 2023 interview with Collider, the actor was slightly more forthcoming. “[The Safdies and I] talked about the script last night – it’s cool. It’s cool! It’s [set] in the sports memorabilia world,” he said before trailing off, adding, “I kind of just want them to decide how to present it.” The world of baseball card collecting is the perfect setting for an Uncut Gems-esque thriller. Trading cards, after all, have been sold at auction for as much as $12.6 million.
When will it be released?
In that same Collider interview, when asked when production would begin, Adam Sandler replied: “We’re working on that, I think, this summer.” Now we know that summer has passed and the film is, for now, nowhere to be seen.
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Who is in the cast?
The Safdie x Sandler link-up was first alluded to in a piece run by Indiewire, which unpacked the tumultuous process actors undertake to toe the line between high-budget and high-brow filmmaking. In it was a short tidbit that stated Josh and Benny Safdie were supposedly working on a new project with Adam Sandler as the lead. It also pointed out that two New York actors in particular were pushing their agents hard to work with the Safdies in future too: our fave Timothée Chalamet and SNL star Pete Davidson.
In the meantime, Benny Safdie has been acting, appearing in Licorice Pizza and the Obi Wan Kenobi series on Disney+. Then there’s the scripted comedy series The Curse, which airs on Showtime and stars Emma Stone alongside Benny, which follows a couple trying to conceive a child while acting together in a “problematic” HGTV show.
Will it be a sequel to Uncut Gems?
For the Safdie Brothers’ next movie to be a sequel to Uncut Gems starring Adam Sandler would be difficult for, er, obvious reasons. The mere idea of us getting in a similar spiritual vein is enough for us to get excited though. Hopefully everything sorts itself out soon.