They say that every time an Adam Sandler project is born, the movie gods flip a coin and the world holds its breath to see where it will land. Sometimes we get comedy Sandman (see: 50 First Dates, Hubie Halloween, The Wedding Singer), sometimes we get serious Sandman (see: Uncut Gems, Punch-Drunk Love, Spaceman), and more often than not the coin falls for the former. But following dramatic turns in Jay Kelly and the aforementioned Spaceman last year, it looks like Sandler is set to play it straight again in Time Out, Deliver Me From Nowhere director Scott Cooper’s upcoming remake of Laurent Canter’s 2001 French drama L’emploi Du Temps.
Set to see Sandler star alongside Willem Dafoe, Gaby Hoffmann, F. Murray Abraham, Steve Zahn, and Adam Horovitz, Time Out is a movie about a man at his wits’ end, by his own design, stuck in an escalating scenario that threatens to ruin his life. In other words, it sounds like we’re in for some stressed out Sandman à la Uncut Gems. The description of the film shared by Deadline reads as follows: “Based on the film L’Emploi Du Temps by Laurent Cantet and Robin Campillo, the pic follows Vincent (Sandler), who after being fired from his job can’t bring himself to tell his wife and family. Rather than reveal the truth, he spins a web of lies to conceal his situation. He escalates his lies further when he creates an investment scheme and asks friends to contribute, and the deception threatens to overwhelm his life and his family.”
“I first encountered Laurent Cantet’s film in 2001, and it’s lived with me ever since,” Cooper said of Time Out, which is due to start shooting next month. “I’ve been thinking about revisiting it for years, but now felt like the right moment — we’re living in a time where questions of identity, work, and self-worth have become impossible to ignore.”
Considering how questions of identity, work, and self-worth are a common theme in both Cooper and Sandler’s most recent movies, colour us very intrigued to see how the duo — backed by a stellar ensemble — set about taking a critically acclaimed work of French cinema and making it their own. One thing’s for sure: we’ll definitely be taking the time out to see Time Out when Time Out‘s out. (Now try saying that back twice as fast!)
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