Adam Sandler Says 1st Draft Of New Safdies Script Was 340 Pages Long

Ever since audiences experienced “Uncut Gems,” they were clamoring for another collaboration between Adam Sandler and the Safdie Brothers. There’s something about those guys working together in that film that produced real brilliance. And thankfully, a reunion is in the works, and according to Sandler, the Safdies are definitely not short of ideas for the upcoming film. 

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Speaking to THR, Adam Sandler teased the next collaboration between him and the Safdie Brothers, the writers and directors of “Uncut Gems” and “Good Time.” While Sandler wasn’t here to divulge any plot specifics, it’s clear the actor is jazzed about working with those filmmakers again. And maybe it’s because they’re reteaming with Sandler, but the Safdies seem just to have a wealth of ideas that they’re trying to cram into one feature. Maybe a trilogy-worth of ideas. 

“They’ve been writing this movie we’re supposed to do together for a couple of years. They just write hundreds and hundreds of pages,” Sandler said. “I’ll read them, and I’ll say, ‘I like the part when this…’ And they’ll be like, ‘Oh, that’s not in it anymore. We did a whole other thing. We’re going to send you a new draft.’ They just don’t stop writing and thinking and coming at every angle they can, and this movie we’re going to do is pretty amazing.”

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Sandler added, “The first draft of the new one was 340 pages! It was insane, and it was great.”

If you’re thinking 350 pages doesn’t seem all that big, then you have to remember that the average film script is roughly 100 pages. The general rule of thumb is that one page of a script is approximately one minute of film. So, by that very loose math, 340 pages is over five-and-a-half hours of film. Clearly, some cuts will have to be made unless the Safdies decide to go prestige TV series with this. 

What’s it about? Details of the script have been vague. Original reports suggested the film would be set in the lucrative and fast-paced world of sports card collecting, and we’ve heard specifically, though not confirmed, that it’s about the baseball card trading world in the 1990s. That would certainly be an interesting and unique world for Sandler, the Safdies, and their obsessive characters to get hooked into.

Honestly, regardless of the length and subject matter of the script, just knowing Benny and Josh Safdie are writing something specifically for Sandler is enough to get excited. In just a matter of a few years, “Uncut Gems” has become an instant classic. We already see the title being used as a descriptor for specific types of frantic, high-paced films. “That’s the ‘Uncut Gems’ of [insert another genre here]!”

There’s no release date set for the new film, but here’s hoping it comes together soon.