As the founder, co-owner and CEO of Happy Madison Productions, Adam Sandler is under no obligation to star in any of the company’s output, although having the complete creative freedom to develop any sort of project he wants, rope in his regular troupe of co-stars and crew members before jetting off to whatever exotic location tickles his fancy is a hugely enviable position to be in, so you can understand why the 54 year-old churns out a new comedy on an almost annual basis.
Since Happy Madison signed a bumper deal and migrated to Netflix in 2014, the outfit has delivered eight feature films, six of which have starred Sandler in the lead role, but he hasn’t always taken center stage. In fact, the first ever movie to emerge from the upstart company was Rob Schneider’s Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo back in 1999, and since then, The Sandman has allowed the majority of his regular running buddies to feature in their own projects.
Schneider, David Spade, Kevin James and even longtime Sandler cohort Allen Covert have all headlined at least one Happy Madison vehicle, but so far the only woman to have ever taken top billing in one of the production company’s efforts is Anna Faris in 2008’s The House Bunny, which is a rarity in that it didn’t feature any of Sandler’s usual collaborators on either side of the camera.
That may soon be changing, however, as insider Daniel Richtman is now claiming that The Sandman and his Happy Madison outfit are developing a number of female-led comedies, but the tipster doesn’t offer much in the way of further details. Most of the female leads in Adam Sandler‘s movies tend to be wives, love interests or supporting characters, though, so perhaps the crown jewel in Netflix’s crown is looking to move with the times and diversify his output going forward.
