An ‘SNL’ Update
In the 1980s, if you were casting a mainstream comedy film, your A-list was largely made up of “Saturday Night Live” alumni, from Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy to Dan Aykroyd and Billy Crystal.
Now comes a movie set in 1985, New Line Cinema’s “The Wedding Singer,” starring a more recent “SNL” alumnus: Adam Sandler. In theaters just 10 days, its surprising box-office performance (at least $34 million in its first two weekends at the box office, according to estimates released Sunday) is prompting speculation not only about Sandler’s potential as a leading man, but also about the legacy of “SNL” as a farm team for movie talent.
Does “The Wedding Singer,” which opened Presidents Day weekend as the second-highest-grossing romantic comedy ever, signal renewed life on the big screen for cast members and alums of the legendary TV sketch comedy show? Has “SNL,” which has gained in the ratings in recent months, won fans loyal enough to get up off the couch and actually pay to see its stars?
The answer appears to be yes, provided all the right elements--good script, good chemistry and good luck--are in place. And right now, many in the movie industry are praying they can replicate that winning trifecta in a slew of films starring “SNL” players.
“Senseless,” a Miramax comedy co-starring “SNL” veteran David Spade, opened last weekend. And several more movies starring young comedians who got their start on “SNL” are in the works. Each project will rise or fall on the appeal of the individual comics, but it is hoped that the success of one bodes well for the others.
“Dirty Work,” starring former “Weekend Update” anchor Norm Macdonald, is set to open May 15. The MGM comedy features Macdonald--who co-wrote the script with “SNL” writers Frank Sebastiano and Fred Wolf--as a misfit who discovers people will pay him handsomely to get revenge on their behalf.
*
Sometime this summer, Paramount Pictures will unveil “A Night at the Roxbury,” a Lorne Michaels-Amy Heckerling production based on an “SNL” skit known to fans as “the nightclub guys.” The film features current “SNL” cast members Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan (who co-wrote the script with Steve Koren) as not-so-suave party animals who wangle their way into the hip world of an exclusive nightclub. Molly Shannon, another “SNL” player, also stars.
Robert Simonds, the producer of numerous modestly budgeted comedies including “Dirty Work,” “The Wedding Singer” and Sandler’s previous two movies, “Happy Gilmore” and “Billy Madison,” is currently developing a film with “SNL” cast members Jim Breuer and Tracy Morgan, who will write and star in the project.
And already the current crop of “SNL” comics has been seen in a host of smaller roles. Ferrell was in New Line’s “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery,” starring fellow “SNL” alum Mike Myers. Darrell Hammond appeared (with Dan Aykroyd, among others) in Universal Pictures’ “Blues Brothers 2000.” The hilarious Cheri Oteri did a cameo as a ridiculously coiffed secretary in Jim Carrey’s “Liar Liar,” also from Universal. And Ana Gasteyer will be seen in “Meet the Deedles,” a Disney surfer-dude comedy due in theaters March 27.
Michaels, the producer of “SNL” for 18 of its 23 seasons, called the weekly show--which is broadcast live and goes from blank page to on-the-air in six days--the best training ground for comedians. That doesn’t mean all of them find success in movies, but when they do, he said, the “SNL” experience plays a role.
“Somebody at NBC once compared the show to the NCAA. It wouldn’t have been my choice for a metaphor--I’d rather have thought of it in grander theatrical terms. But it’s a place where you can watch players develop who you are later going to see in the majors,” said Michaels, who has produced several movies starring “SNL” veterans, including hits such as “Wayne’s World” and flops such as “Coneheads.”
“You’re watching the moment when people go from amateur to professional and living through it with them. You begin to feel proprietary about them and have affection for them,” he said. “If you’ve seen them be funny [on SNL] and you hear they’re in a movie, you’re more likely to show up.”
To be sure, the success of “The Wedding Singer” owes at least as much to Sandler--and, producers admit, to luck and timing--as to his “SNL” roots. Sandler plays a sweet-natured lead singer in a wedding band who finds himself left at the altar. Drew Barrymore is a comely waitress, engaged to a jerky junk bond trader who works on Wall Street, who helps the jilted Sandler recover.
Some critics have found the movie, which was made for about $20 million, too saccharine. But, generally, Sandler has been praised for growing up, leaving behind his previous dim-bulb adolescent roles for a more well-rounded one--a nice guy who believes in true love, gives old ladies singing lessons, baby-sits and only tells fat jokes when he’s in a really bad mood.
“Adam deliberately set out to make an Adam Sandler movie that wasn’t a typical Adam Sandler movie,” said Mitch Goldman, New Line’s president of marketing and distribution. “As funny as he was being just gonzo, doing the frat boy thing for the frat boy audience, he smartly realized that [leads to] diminishing returns. He may have seen some of his other ‘SNL’ cohorts go in that direction and ultimately wear themselves out in terms of their appeal.”
*
The most tragic real-life example of that, of course, is Chris Farley, the manic 300-pound comic who was found dead in December in his Chicago apartment. The 33-year-old, who had starred (often with Spade) in several profitable film comedies, died of an accidental overdose of cocaine and morphine, nearly the same combination that killed his comic idol and previous “SNL” star John Belushi.
Notably, Sandler’s character in “The Wedding Singer” rarely even drinks alcohol. In the script, written by “SNL” producer Tim Herlihy, Sandler’s character tells a drunken wedding guest, “Alcohol equals puke equals smelly mess equals nobody likes you.” But to go that route--to depart, even slightly, from the shock humor formula that often gets laughs from the expulsion of bodily fluids--was a risk.
“Our challenge was to make new friends and keep the old,” said Goldman, who praised Sandler for turning in a performance that broadened his appeal. “There are moments for the frat boys. He doesn’t disappoint. But he’s also a likable guy for women.”
Simonds, who produced the movie with Jack Giarraputo, agreed. “There’s your traditional demographic of young men 12 to 25 that if you’re making a movie like this you need to nail. If you get them and only them, you establish a beachhead upon which you can build,” he said.
The converse is obvious: Don’t get them, and you’re sunk.
“We were worried about Adam’s core audience being turned off by Adam in a romantic comedy,” Simonds admitted. The solution: setting the movie in the 1980s, with its bad fashion (velour warmup suits for men, appliqued metallic outfits for women) and its goofy fads (Rubik’s cubes, break-dancing).
“Somehow, it seemed that by sticking it back in 1985, it mitigated the problem,” said Simonds. “We basically partied on the ‘80s. And it removed any hokeyness.”
It also created an opportunity for a targeted marketing campaign designed specifically to lure people who are not traditionally Sandler fans: women and adults. In print ads, for example, which are not usually the basis upon which teenagers make their moviegoing decisions, New Line pitched to the mature audience.
“Before the Internet, before cell phones, before roller-blades, there was a time. . . 1985,” one ad said, appealing to those old enough to feel nostalgic. “Don’t pretend you don’t remember.”
Trailers shown on television, meanwhile, omitted all mention of the year, instead highlighting either the comedic themes (for men) or the romantic ones (for women), depending on the time slot.
“We would carpet-bomb the specific demographic: Saturation bomb MTV with a young male spot. Attack Thursday nights on NBC with mixed spots. Hit your ‘Suddenly Susan’ and ‘Caroline in the City’ with older female spots,” said Simonds.
Apparently, such aggressive action is working. Exit polling indicates that the audience includes more women and adults than have ever attended Sandler’s previous movies. Goldman said Sandler himself noticed it when he snuck into the back of a movie theater to see how the film was playing.
“To quote Adam, in one of the theaters he went to he was surprised to see so many bald heads. What he usually sees is baseball caps turned backwards,” he said.
Up next for Sandler is Touchstone’s “The Water Boy,” now shooting in Florida. Fairuza Balk and Kathy Bates co-star in this comedy about a water boy on a college football team who is drafted after the coach discovers his ability to tackle guys much larger than he.
And since “The Wedding Singer” opened, Sandler has been signed for two more comedy projects: Columbia Pictures’ “Guy Gets Kid,” about a 30-ish single guy who adopts a 6-year-old boy, and an untitled New Line project about the complexities of father-son relationships that re-teams Sandler with Simonds, Giarraputo and Herlihy.
A press release issued last week described the film this way: “A father wants his son to take over the family business, but the son is reluctant because dad happens to be the devil.”
So what does this mean for the future of other “SNL” players in the movies? Producers are wary to predict.
“We got lucky,” said Simonds, who said the timing of “The Wedding Singer’s” opening, a day before Valentine’s Day, in a slack movie season--how many times can a person see “Titanic”?--seemed to work in the light comedy’s favor.
“All the factors that we couldn’t even hope to control came together. . . . The chemistry between Adam and Drew was terrific. And the mood of the country [was right]. Given what’s going on in the world, the idea of going into a more innocent, friendly, funny place and hiding for 90 minutes seemed to click.”
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
‘Night’ Work
In the 1980s, a comic’s success on television’s “Saturday Night Live” tended to translate directly into success in the movies. In recent years, as the box-office appeal of older “SNL” veterans like Chevy Chase and Bill Murray has waned, younger alumni of the sketch comedy show have tried to fill their shoes on the big screen--with mixed results. Below, a sampling of their films and how they have performed:
* “Wayne’s World” (Paramount Pictures)
Stars: Dana Carvey and Mike Myers
Opened: 2/15/92
Domestic Box Office: $121,697,323
*
* “Wayne’s World 2” (Paramount Pictures)
Stars: Dana Carvey and Mike Myers
Opened: 12/10/93
Domestic Box Office: $46,637,382
*
* “It’s Pat: The Movie” (Buena Vista)
Stars: Julia Sweeney
Opened: 8/26/94
Domestic Box Office: $60,822
*
* “Billy Madison” (Universal)
Stars: Adam Sandler
Opened: 2/10/95
Domestic Box Office: $25,441,250
*
* “Tommy Boy” (Paramount)
Stars: Chris Farley and David Spade
Opened: 3/31/95
Domestic Box Office: $32,674,067
*
* “Stuart Saves His Family” (Paramount)
Star: Al Franken
Opened: 4/12/95
Domestic Box Office: $911,171
*
* “Black Sheep” (Paramount)
Stars: Chris Farley and David Spade
Opened: 2/2/96
Domestic Box Office: $32,417,164
*
* “Happy Gilmore” (Universal)
Star: Adam Sandler
Opened: 2/16/96
Domestic Box Office: $38,648,864
*
* “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” (New Line Cinema)
Stars: Mike Myers
Opened: 5/2/97
Domestic Box Office: $53,882,132
*
* “The Wedding Singer” (New Line)
Star: Adam Sandler
Opened: 2/13/97
Domestic Box Office: Still in release
SOURCE: Exhibitor Relations