GROWN UPS 2
After moving his
family back to his hometown to be with his friends and their kids, Lenny (Adam
Sandler), finds out that between old bullies, new bullies, schizo bus drivers,
drunk cops on skis, and 400 costumed party crashers sometimes crazy follows
you.
Columbia
Pictures presents a Happy Madison production, a film by Dennis Dugan, Grown Ups 2. Starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris
Rock, David Spade, Salma Hayek, Maya Rudolph, Maria Bello, and Nick
Swardson. Directed by Dennis Dugan. Produced by Adam Sandler and Jack
Giarraputo. Written by Fred Wolf &
Adam Sandler & Tim Herlihy.
Executive Producers are Barry Bernardi and Allen Covert. Director of Photography is Theo Van de Sande,
ASC. Production Designer is Aaron
Osborne. Editor is Tom Costain. Costume Designer is Ellen Lutter. Music by Rupert Gregson-Williams. Music Supervision by Michael Dilbeck, Brooks
Arthur, and Kevin Grady.
ABOUT THE FILM
They’re
back – Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, and David Spade re-team for
summer fun in Grown Ups 2.
Sandler’s
most successful comedy in his long career, the 2010 film Grown Ups took the box office by storm as audiences laughed their
way to more than $260 million worldwide.
Remarkably for a comedy star, Sandler has proven equally popular at home
and abroad – the film took in over $100 million overseas.
So,
after more than ten years of blockbuster comedies, Sandler is doing something
he’s never done before: a sequel.
Director Dennis Dugan, who helms his eighth Sandler film with Grown Ups 2, says that there are several
reasons why the time is right. “It was
just exciting to bring everybody back together,” he says. “All the characters and relationships were so
rich and funny, we knew there were lots more stories to be told. It’s like visiting old friends.”
For
Chris Rock, re-teaming with his fellow funnymen meant the chance to be an
especially funny movie. “It’s a playful
competition,” he says. “I wanted to be
funnier than Spade, Spade wants to be funnier than Kevin, and Kevin wants to be
funnier than Adam. You just can’t help
it, if you’re a comedian. But the
positive side is that I think we really do make each other funnier.”
ADAM SANDLER returns as Lenny Feder. Once a Hollywood big-shot, his most recent
trip back to his hometown – allowing him to reconnect with his old friends –
opened his eyes to what’s really important in life. It’s a lesson he didn’t forget. “Lenny has quit his job as a Hollywood agent
and moved the family back to his hometown,” Dugan explains. “He wants the kids to grow up in a normal
place, rather than the craziness of Hollywood.”
KEVIN JAMES plays Eric Lamonsoff, who has to face his
ultimate fear in the movie. “One of the things the movie is about is these guys
re-living their youth a bit, and now that they’re grown up, they’re facing up
to the things they never dealt with when they were young,” says James. “My guy
is the one guy who never jumped off the huge cliff at the quarry back in the
day. Lenny and the guys don’t let me live it down… so when the challenge is put
in front of me, I am forced to conquer the fears of my youth… or go to a diner,
either one.”
CHRIS ROCK returns as Kurt McKenzie. A househusband in the first film, he’s gone
back to work in Grown Ups 2 – not
that you’d know it. “He’s supposed to be
a cable repairman, but – like all cable repairmen – he’s figured out how to do
as little real work as possible,” Rock explains. “He gives you the window – ‘I’ll be there
between noon and four’ – and then he waits for that one moment when you can’t
answer the door. Knock, no answer, and
boom – he leaves the note, reschedule.”
DAVID SPADE’s character, Marcus Higgins, gets a bit of a
comeuppance in Grown Ups 2. “In the first movie, he discovered that the
life he thought he wanted, single and free, wasn’t as fulfilling as his friends’,
even though they were tied down with wives and kids,” says Spade. “Well, in the sequel, he finds out that the
free-and-easy life wasn’t as free or easy as he thought – he has a son that he
never knew about, and he’s coming up to the town to spend some time with the
father he never knew. Oh, and the kid is
about 18 and enormous and knows how to hold a grudge.”
NICK SWARDSON brings the laughs as Nick. “I was psyched to work with so many great
people on this movie,” he says. “People I never thought I’d work with. This
movie is really fun and crazy and I am glad I was a part of it.”
THE WIVES
SALMA HAYEK plays Lenny’s wife, Roxanne. This very fashion-conscious woman leaves LA
for the small-town, east-coast life. “She’s
the only fish out of water,” says Hayek.
“The rest of the characters grew up together. So it takes her some time to find her place
in her new home town.”
For
Hayek, the chance to re-team with the cast of Grown Ups was the only invitation she needed. “I was so excited to get back together with
these wonderful actors and comedians,” she says. “We’ve stayed in touch and I love to work
with them – they are so good. I
especially love the girls, Maria and Maya – we really bonded last time and we’re
more relaxed this time. Maya is one of
the best comediennes in America, and she actually gets better, year by
year. And Maria just brings it – she was
fierce.”
Hayek
says that being on the set is an inspiration for all of the actors to do their
best comedic work. “I was really
impressed by how funny everyone was – even actors that you wouldn’t
expect. Shaquille O’Neal was a
revelation to me – he’s hilarious, and in this one, he’s the funniest he’s ever
been.”
MAYA RUDOLPH plays Deanne McKenzie, the wife of the
character played by Chris Rock. She
says, “Chris is hands down one of the smartest, funniest people alive so
getting to work with him is always a dream. He can seriously talk to you about
anything and I guarantee it will be the most insightful, intelligent, most
hilarious take on an issue that you've ever heard. He could read me the Chili's
menu and I'd be happy.”
MARIA
BELLO plays Sally Lamonsoff. She says that a working on an Adam Sandler
production is unlike any other. “You
have so much freedom,” she says. “Adam
and the guys expect you to make improvisational choices with your
character. Not every choice you make
will make it into the movie, but that’s OK – some will, and they’ll be some of
the biggest laughs you get.”
“This time, when I got the call, I knew what to expect – I
was going back to summer camp,” she continues.
“Adam and Happy Madison create that atmosphere for all of us in
Marblehead and Swampscott. It’s a really
fun production – I was thrilled.”
THE TOWN
Playing
Marcus’s son, Braden, is Alexander Ludwig, who recently starred in The Hunger Games. “Braden is the son that Marcus didn’t know he
had – but Braden doesn’t know that,” says Ludwig. “He’s under the impression that Marcus knew
all along, and was just ignoring his son.
So theirs is a very strained relationship from the first meeting,
because Braden has had years and years to build up anger toward his father. It was fun to play such a crazy, intimidating
character.”
Still,
the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
“He’s a huge version of Marcus,” says Ludwig. “He’s got the crazy long hair, the goatee –
but he completely overshadows his father.”
Ludwig
was especially gratified by the chance to join the comedy. “After The
Hunger Games, I’m glad to have
the chance to do something different and keep people guessing. Besides, when
Adam Sandler calls and says he’s interested in you being in his next movie, you
jump at the opportunity.”
The
film is also chock full of cameos and huge supporting performances. Heartthrob Taylor Lautner joins the fun as
the lead frat boy in the pack that causes trouble for our heroes. “My character and his friends aren’t the
nicest guys, but that’s part of the fun of the movie,” he says. “I can’t think of a better way to spend the
summer than hanging out with Adam Sandler and his crew. I grew up watching his movies, I’m a big fan
of his.”
NBA
legend Shaquille O’Neal takes on the role of Officer Fluzoo, protecting and
serving the good citizens of Stanton, Connecticut. In proving to be a Superman equally skilled
in comedy as on the court, Shaq saw his role grow from a cameo to a true
supporting role. “It’s great to know
Adam, great to work with him,” says the 15-time All-Star. “In my first scene, I was actually kind of
nervous – I had to put myself in basketball mode. I saw Adam, Chris, and David, and I said to
myself, ‘OK, there’s Jordan, there’s Bird, there’s Magic. Just go do what
you do, Shaq.’ And I did what I do, and
I hope everyone enjoys the movie.”
Shaq
is paired with Happy Madison regular Peter Dante, who plays, appropriately
enough, Officer Dante. “We met, and five
minutes later, we were best friends,” says Dante. “I can’t believe I get Shaq as my
partner. He’s just the most legitimate,
cool, regular, modest, great guy – one of the greatest we’ve ever had join the
party. Right from the first take, he
just got it.”
Dante
says that all of the film’s cameos raise the comedic level of the film. “You’ll be in hair and makeup in the morning
and look around, and there’s Colin Quinn, there’s Cheri Oteri, Chris Rock,
David Spade, every actor you every laughed at on ‘Saturday Night Live’ – they’re
all still friends, and they’re all there because of Adam. It’s his friendship and loyalty to them – and
theirs to him – that is the most amazing thing.”
Reprising
their roles from Grown Ups are ‘SNL’
alums Colin Quinn and Tim Meadows, as well as Steve Buscemi and Dan
Patrick. “These guys were the nemeses in
the first movie,” says Dugan. “And of course, they all still live in the town –
they’ll always live in the town – so they’re all back – eccentric as ever.”
Also
returning to the cast of Grown Ups 2
are the kids: Jake Goldberg, Cameron Boyce, and Alexys Nycole Sanchez as the
Feder kids; Ada-Nicole Sanger and Frank and Morgan Gingerich as the Lamansoff
kids; and Nadji Jeter and China Anne McClain as the McKenzie kids. “It’s great fun to see all the kids again –
they’ve all grown up,” says Dugan. “The
kids that were pre-teens last time have grown into teenagers – and you know
teenagers and the last day of school.
What are they gonna do? They’re
gonna sneak off to the quarry.”
In
real life, things have changed for the actors, too. “When we cast all of these kids four years
ago, they were all just kids, coming in with their moms and dads,” says Dugan. “Now, as we were scheduling Grown Ups 2, it was easy to get Salma
and Kevin… but Cameron is in the Disney Channel show ‘Jessie’ and China has
become a huge star with her show ‘A.N.T. Farm!’
She’s super famous now. And all of the other kids are on their way,
too. They’re more famous than our famous
guys!”
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION, SETS, AND
LOCATIONS
In
filming Grown Ups 2, the crew
returned to the north shore of Massachusetts, where they also shot the first
film. Production Designer Aaron Osborne
says that they sought to build off the look of the first film. “Grown
Ups 1 has an authentic Americana vibe to it,” he says. “I wanted to honor that while at the same
time build it up and add to it.”
Osborne
says that the sets, locations, and designs are all about giving the comedians a
setting to do what they do best. “It is such a pleasure working with
Adam, because he is so collaborative and riffs off everything you throw at him.
Whether it is a design idea or a piece of set dressing, he takes any ball and
runs with it.”
Similarly,
he says, Dennis Dugan brings it all together. “Dennis is a fantastic
director – he’s open to everything,” says Osborne. “What is so inspiring
about Dennis is that with him, everything is open, and brand new, and
exciting. It’s infectious – everybody
around him falls into it and no one is immune.”
The filmmakers found the picturesque and historical towns of
Marblehead and Swampscott to serve as the perfect locales for the fictional
town of Stanton, Connecticut.
Marblehead’s historical district and surrounding areas, including
the Old Town House, Abbot Hall, businesses along the scenic Washington Street,
Atlantic and Ocean Ave and neighborhood schools were transformed into the
childhood hometown of Lenny Feder and his friends. The local toy store became
the Red Arrow Diner (sharing its name with a favorite New Hampshire eatery),
while the gallery down the block became Roxanne’s Hermosa boutique. Meanwhile,
at Gatchell Playground – an eight-acre park with baseball and football fields
and a basketball court – the filmmakers were able to construct the ice cream
shop. “I took it as a compliment when people would drive up, ask for ice
cream, and not understand why we would not serve it to them,” remembers
Osborne.
In Swampscott, the rail station, local school, and various
residential homes and streets were used, while Marian College was transformed
into a Brunson University fraternity house.
Perhaps most
impressively, the filmmakers built a 45,000 sq ft soundstage in Swampscott,
where Osborne created the Feder home back yard, including a tree house and
pool. “We just never could find the
house with right back yard,” says Dugan.
“And even if we could find it, we realized that we wanted to shoot a
nighttime party there – which would mean six weeks of night shooting, 9 PM to 6
AM. So we built a soundstage. We wouldn’t be disturbing the community and
we could shoot day-for-night – and it’s much easier for the actors to be funny
at 3 PM than at 3 AM.”
The solution began
with the filmmakers locating a house with a great front yard; they subsequently
began designing a back yard to match. “The back of the real house was right on
the ocean,” says Osborne. “It had a
beautiful front, but no back yard.
Taking the design of that house, we just started building models of what
the back yard might look like. I had a
crack art department and we built scale models of how we would like it to be –
and we played with hundreds of little figurines for the big fight scene. We went over it with Dennis and Adam and we
just modified and modified until we had a final design. While
we did that, we also built models of the soundstage, so the two could be
incorporated around each other.”
How do you build
a soundstage on a football field? You
get creative. “We built it out of
shipping containers,” says Dugan. “Three
containers high, 175 feet wide, 250 feet long.
Then we put a giant tent on top of the containers and lit it; we built
the back of the house in there and put in a lawn, a swimming pool, and
trees. It’s a bigger space than the
biggest stage in Hollywood, and it worked beautifully.”
“I’ve been doing
this a long time, and I have to say that the backyard set on Grown Ups 2 is the set I’m the most
proud of in my whole career,” says Osborne.
Other locations
in Massachusetts were used including the streets in the towns of Saugus,
Lexington and the Kmart in Tewksbury. “Our
Kmart set was built into a real Kmart,” says Osborne. “We worked with their corporate branding
team, and they sent in a stylist to help us.
I think they were really happy – they wanted to leave everything we did
it! It’s all about Adam and the cast –
building them a great set where we could give them the stage to do their funny
stuff.”
In addition, the filmmakers found the perfect quarry needed for the film
on the Westford/ Tyngsboro line.
ABOUT THE COSTUMES
Costume Designer
Ellen Lutter marks her 12th feature film with Adam Sandler with Grown Ups 2. Like most of the other “repeat offenders” on
Sandler’s crew, she likens the experience to being part of a family – and, she
says, it’s an experience that she never really saw coming. “It’s rare in the industry these days,” she
says, for a group of professionals to keep working together, project after
project. “None of us realized it, but I
think Adam was very aware of this system of working – he was very keyed into
creating a company, creating a family, that would repeatedly work
together. The entire crew turns into a
safety net – you care about the project and you care about each other. And it’s very freeing – if you have a risky
idea, you don’t have to start tap dancing or freeze up with anxiety or worry
that if it’s not understood, you’re going to get fired.”
Grown Ups 2 represented one of Lutter’s greatest
challenges to date, as the climax of the film is an 80s party, with all the
main cast, supporting cast, and extras dressed as celebrities from the
decade. There are plenty of laughs in
the climax of the film, and many of them come from the shock of recognition as
sight gag piles on top of sight gag.
How to tackle
such a scene? One costume at a time,
says Lutter. “You always know when you’re
responsible for the laugh – you don’t have to be told,” she says. “I thought about the characters
individually. It was more interesting to
do costumes that had a little social commentary aspect – to do specific
celebrities rather than just make everyone have big hair. We continued the theme in the extras as well
– it was more interesting and challenging to have that moment when the audience
recognizes a celebrity or idea, and because we had so many, it rewards repeated
viewings. The trip down memory lane is
what adds to the joke – and, in addition, in and of themselves, the costumes
are funny. We had quite a few ways of
getting a laugh out of it.”
Many of the
celebrity references were written into the script, but more came out of
discussion with Sandler and Dugan and research by the costume department. “We did lists of possibilities,” says
Lutter. “I love research – and because
nothing beats a visual representation as a point of departure, we made our
lists with the visuals so that we could plug them into our characters. Ultimately, Adam and Dennis are the final decision-makers.”
Some of the 80s
celebrities in the party scene include:
-
Adam Sandler as Bruce Springsteen
-
Kevin James as Meat Loaf
-
Chris Rock as Prince
-
Alexander Ludwig and David Spade as Hall and
Oates
-
Maria Bello as Madonna
-
Maya Rudolph as Tina Turner
-
Nick Swardson as Boy George
-
Oliver Hudson as Indiana Jones
-
Shaquille O’Neal and Peter Dante as Miami Vice
-
Kevin Grady as Magnum PI
-
Dan Patrick as Larry Bird
-
Steve Buscemi as Flavor Flav
Lutter says that
for the most part, the actors were happy to play dress-up. “The one I was worried about was Jake
Goldberg, playing Adam’s son Greg, dressing up as Risky Business,” she
says. “That costume, you know, is just a
shirt, socks, underwear, and a pair of sunglasses, and I didn’t know how a
teenage boy was going to feel about that.
So I thought, OK, I’ll have a backup plan. Colin Quinn was set to play Top Gun, and I
thought, he’s got good legs, if I had to, I could swap them. So I went to Colin to talk to him about it,
and he said, ‘Are you crazy? I’m not doing Risky Business!’ Although, by the way, he had no problem being
Lover Boy as a backup in a pair of tight red pants that left about as much to
the imagination as the Risky Business underwear would have. But I got lucky – Jake was absolutely cool
about it and looked great doing it.”
Lutter’s other
big challenge in the production of Grown
Ups 2 is the pair of encrusted, lit-up, blinged-out boots worn by Ada-Nicole
Sanger as Donna Lamonsoff. “Even though
it looked like a silly little toy, it was a huge challenge and it took a long
time to get it right,” she says. “We
started with sketches and collages, and then we built a few prototypes – we
didn’t know what we wanted until we saw it live and on film in a camera test. When we finally were able to put together a
combination of the elements that we liked, we started working on wiring the
lights on them to blink – we collaborated with Theo Van de Sande, the director
of photography, and the electric department in order to come up with the
correct lights that we could control with a dimmer and do the whole thing
remotely. The lights were controlled
off-camera with a regular lighting cue, as if you had an actor walk in a room
and turn on a light. It was fun to
create a personality for the lights – they could blink, or chase, or dim down
if they were too bright. It was
super-fun to create a practical thing that worked flawlessly.”
ABOUT THE STUNTS
Grown Ups 2 2nd Unit Director / Stunt Coordinator Scott Rogers
says that he found his role changing from the beginning of the process until
the film wrapped. “When I first read the
script, I thought, ‘Oh, this has some funny gags.’ By the time we were done, I was amazed at how
much we’d done – what started as a simple little comedy turned out to have huge
cliff jumps, a rolling tire, and an epic battle royale fight sequence,” he
says.
Rogers says that the jump off the cliff is standard stuff, if you’re
a professional stuntman. “Basically, we were slamming into the water
while wearing a very uncomfortable amount of clothing,” he says.
Chris Rock says, slyly, “I
jumped off the quarry – in just the same way as Tom Cruise climbed that building
in Mission Impossible. We know he did that, right?”
For Alexander Ludwig, it was a rare joy. “It was one of the best scenes I’ve ever had
the pleasure of filming. What other
movie lets you jump off a 50-foot cliff in between takes?”
Another stunt involved David Spade and a rolling tire. “That was a challenge – if you bury the actor
in the tire, you can’t see him,” says Rogers. “So we had to purposely build a prop tire
where David wouldn’t be fully buried inside it, but it still had to look just
like a real tire. We also had to be able
to mount a camera inside. Well, we
actually rolled him inside the tire down the street. It’s one of those scenes that’s just so much
funnier when you see it’s really the actor doing it – it completely makes the
scene. When David was in it, we had
complete control over the tire – we drove a cart that pulled the tire. But then, with a stunt double, we got it
going up to 18 miles per hour. It was
pretty funny.”
Dugan says that Spade was not entirely on board
for the stunt at the outset. “I had to
do it first,” he says. “Only after he
saw an old man had done it was he embarrassed enough to do it. I’m glad he did, because it’s very funny and
very cool.”
For the final fight sequence at the party, many
stunt men and free runners were brought in to choreograph the action. Rogers explained, “The actors were full tilt,
it was pretty amazing to watch. Between
the cast, the stunt people, and the extras, we had to be pushing 300 people on
camera. We spent about a week working on
all of the separate little fights in the sequence.”
Dugan says that the party scene involved another
memorable stunt. “We wanted to have a
guy skiing down a roof and doing a belly flop into the pool. Well, Peter Dante says, ‘I’ll do it,’” he
remembers. “Of course, he wasn’t really
doing it – he was in a harness, tied to cables.
Still, he smacked into that water, face down. My face and belly hurt just thinking about
it. He got up and came out of the water,
and he was mildly goofy for about three days – but Peter Dante’s mildly goofy
is way beyond what the rest of us are.”
But even though Grown Ups 2 had so much more action than expected, Rogers still
sees a way to top it: “If we do Grown Ups
3D, that’ll be epic.”
ABOUT
THE CAST
ADAM SANDLER
(Lenny Feder / Co-Writer / Producer) has enjoyed phenomenal success as an
actor, writer, producer and musician. Sandler’s films have grossed over
$3 billion worldwide. Most recently, his voice was heard in the lead role
of Dracula in Sony Pictures Animation’s worldwide Hotel Transylvania;
which Happy Madison also produced. Next up for Sandler is an untitled
comedy for Warner Bros., where he will re-team with Drew Barrymore and director
Frank Coraci. The story revolves around a couple who, after a disastrous
blind date, find themselves stuck together in a family resort with their
children from previous marriages. Sandler was most recently seen opposite
Andy Samberg in That’s My Boy, and prior to that, starred in Jack and
Jill with Katie Holmes and Just Go With It with Jennifer
Aniston. Sandler’s previous films include Grown Ups, the highest
grossing live action film of his career, taking in more than $271 million
worldwide. Sandler also starred in Universal’s Funny People,
written and directed by Judd Apatow starring with Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric
Bana, Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman, as well as the box office smashes
Bedtime Stories for Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures You Don’t Mess with
the Zohan and Universal’s comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry.
Sandler’s voice was also heard in Columbia Pictures’/MGM’s Zookeeper,
starring Kevin James; Previously, Sandler has been seen in the starring
role opposite Don Cheadle in Sony’s Reign Over Me for director Mike
Binder, the box-office hits Click, starring with Kate Beckinsale, and The
Longest Yard, starring with Chris Rock and Burt Reynolds. He also
starred in James L. Brooks’ Spanglish, opposite Tea Leoni; the romantic
comedy 50 First Dates, with Drew Barrymore; Anger Management, with Jack
Nicholson; and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love, for which he
received a Golden Globe nomination.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Manchester, New
Hampshire, Sandler’s first brush with comedy came at age 17, with a performance
at a Boston comedy club. From then on he was hooked, performing regularly
in comedy clubs throughout the state, while earning a degree in Fine Arts from
New York University.
Sandler’s production company Happy Madison Productions was
co-founded by Jack Giarraputo and Sandler and has gone on to become an almost
self-contained mini studio, being involved in all aspects of film production.
Happy Madison has produced Click, The Benchwarmers, Deuce Bigalow: European
Gigolo, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, Strange Wilderness and the
recent films The House Bunny, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Zookeeper, Here
Comes the Boom. Sandler has also collaborated with writer Tim Herlihy
on the screenplays for Happy Gilmore, Little Nicky, Billy Madison, Big Daddy,
and The Waterboy and executive produced Grandma’s Boy, The Animal,
Joe Dirt, The Master of Disguise, The Hot Chick and Deuce Bigalow: Male
Gigolo.
Happy Madison Productions also has a deal with Columbia Tri-Star
Domestic Television to develop shows for the studio including the upcoming ABC
show “Here Comes The Goldbergs” and “Rules of Engagement” starring David
Spade and Oliver Hudson which recently ended a successful six year run.
Sandler’s comedy albums on Warner Bros Records have gone multi-platinum.
Collectively, they have sold more than six million copies to date.
Additionally, Sandler has also won several awards including, People’s
Choice, Kids Choice, MTV, and Teen Choice awards.
KEVIN JAMES (Eric Lamonsoff), a producer, co-writer, and
star of the hit comedies Paul Blart: Mall
Cop (2009) and Zookeeper (2011)
was most recently seen in Here Comes The
Boom. James also starred in Columbia
Pictures’ blockbuster Grown Ups
(2010) along with Adam Sandler; previously, James and Sandler worked together
on I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
(2007).
James
broke into the film world in 2005 in Columbia Pictures’ Hitch starring opposite Will Smith, but his comedy career started
well before that as a stand-up on the Long Island comedy scene. After being discovered at the 1996 Montreal
Comedy Festival, he signed a network development deal to create his own sitcom.
The King of Queens, which premiered in 1998, ran for nine seasons on CBS with
James starring and executive producing, and it garnered him an Emmy nomination
in 2006 for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. The show concluded its run in 2007 but continues
to air daily in syndication across the country and around the world.
In
2001, James brought his stand-up act to TV with Sweat the Small Stuff, a one-hour special for Comedy Central. In 2005, Kevin James and Ray Romano executive
produced and starred in the HBO Sports Special Making the Cut: The Road to Pebble Beach; a documentary about the
Pebble Beach Pro Am Golf Tournament that was nominated for a Sports Emmy.
Aside
from his on-camera work, James’s voice has been featured in the animated films Barnyard (2006) for Nick Movies, as well
as Monster House (2006) and Hotel Transylvania (2012) for Sony
Pictures Animation.
Lauded
by awards and critics alike, CHRIS ROCK
(Kurt McKenzie) is one of our generation’s strongest comedic voices. The
Brooklyn-raised comedian has garnered four Emmy Awards, three Grammy Awards, is listed as number five
on Comedy Central’s 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time and was honored in 2006 with HBO’s esteemed Comedian
Award.
Rock
is currently in pre-production on an as yet untitled film, being produced by
Scott Rudin, in which he is starring, as well as writing and directing. Rock recently made his Broadway debut in
Stephen Adly Guirgis’s Tony-nominated play “The Motherf**ker With The Hat,” in
which he starred alongside Bobby Cannavale, Elizabeth
Rodriquez, Annabella Sciorra and Yul Vasquez. The play opened to rave reviews
on and ran at the Gerard Schoenfeld Theatre.
This past June, Rock reprised his role as the voice of Marty in DreamWorks Animation’s blockbuster Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, along with Ben Stiller and Jada
Pickett Smith. Rock previously starred with Stiller and Smith in Madagascar: Escape 2
Africa, which has grossed over $515 million worldwide, as well as the
blockbuster Madagascar, which was
released in 2005. Later in 2012, Rock starred opposite Julie
Delpy in the independent drama 2 Days in
New York, the follow up to both 2 Days
in Paris and Before Sunset, for
which Rock’s performance received terrific reviews when the film opened at the
Sundance Film Festival.
In
2010, Rock starred in Grown Ups alongside Adam Sandler, Kevin James, and
David Spade. He also starred in Death at a Funeral, an urban
reworking of the British comedy, on which he also served as producer.
With Neil Labute directing, this was the pair’s first reunion for a film since
their initial working together on the dark comedy Nurse Betty, in which
Rock co-starred alongside Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear and Renee Zellweger, and
LaBute directed.
Rock
competed at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival as first-time documentary filmmaker
for his film, Good Hair, a comedic
and insightful look into the immense African-American hair industry. The
critically-acclaimed film won the Sundance Special Jury Prize, the NAACP Image
Award for Outstanding Documentary and was named Top Five Documentaries of 2009 by the
National Board of Review.
In
2008, Rock kicked off his first stand-up tour in over three years – “No
Apologies” – featuring all new material. The tour kicked off in New York and
then headed to the United Kingdom where Rock performed for his first time ever
overseas. He immediately sold out his original set of 2008 U.K. tour dates, and
to satisfy the fervent demand, an additional week-long overseas leg was added.
Rock’s tour returned to the United States in early February, where it lasted
through May, with additional international dates following in Australia, South
Africa and Europe before returning the tour to the US throughout the summer. On
May 23rd, Rock broke the Guinness World Record for the largest
audience ever at a comedy show in the UK by selling out the O2 Arena on 2
consecutive nights with an audience of 15,900 each night.
Coinciding
with the tour, Rock also released his first “best-of” album, “Cheese and
Crackers: The Greatest Bits,” through Geffen Records. Featuring 19 tracks of
Rock’s most notorious moments, “Cheese and Crackers: The Greatest Bits” showcases
the Brooklyn-raised comic’s insight on everything from race relations,
politics, sex, and the infamous “N-word.”
Serving as both co-creator and
narrator, Rock’s television series “Everybody Hates Chris,” about a black kid in
a mostly white school in 1980s, was inspired by Rock’s own life. Upon its debut
on UPN in 2005, it was named one of Entertainment Weekly’s “top new series,”
making it the most-watched comedy in UPN’s history. In 2006 the show earned both a Golden Globe
nomination for Best Television Series Musical or Comedy and a Writers Guild
Awards nomination for Best New Series.
Rock
made his directorial debut with Head of
State, in which he also starred alongside Bernie Mac. His feature film debut was in Beverly Hills Cop II with Eddie
Murphy. He went on to write, create,
star and produce the rap comedy CB4
in 1993, a satire of the world of hardcore rap, which opened #1 at the box
office. Other film credits include Boomerang,
with Eddie Murphy; Panther, directed
by Mario Van Peebles; New Jack City
with Wesley Snipes (a film marking Rock’s dramatic debut as a desperate crack
addict); and I’m Gonna Git You Sucka!
with Keenen Ivory Wayans. The summer of 1998 saw Chris Rock co-star in two
$100-million-plus grossing films: Lethal
Weapon 4 and Dr. Dolittle. Rock
starred in Kevin Smith’s Dogma, which
also featured Ben Affleck, Salma Hayek and Matt Damon. He also starred in the
Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Bad Company
opposite Anthony Hopkins; the romantic comedy Down to Earth co-directed by Paul and Chris Weitz and co-written by
Rock. In March of 2007, Rock starred in I Think I Love My Wife, a film which he
also wrote and directed, and The Longest
Yard with Adam Sandler, a remake of the 1974 classic.
After
gaining early success as a stand-up comedian, Rock joined the cast of NBC’s
Saturday Night Live in 1989. In 1993, he taped his first HBO special “Chris
Rock: Big Ass Jokes,” which was honored with a CableAce Award. Rock served as
the sole 1996 presidential campaign correspondent for the acclaimed “Politically
Incorrect,” then on Comedy Central, and received an Emmy nomination for a
shared writing credit in the category of Outstanding Writing for a Variety or
Music Program for the show. Rock’s true emergence as a celebrated talent can be
traced to his next HBO special, “Bring the Pain,” which was honored with two
Emmy Awards for Best Writing and Outstanding Special in 1997. “Bring the Pain”
was released as a home video as well as a Grammy Award-winning CD. Rock went on
to host the acclaimed “Chris Rock Show,” which began airing on HBO in 1997.
Rock and his popular talk show were honored with several Emmy nominations for
both writing and best host. The show then received an Emmy Award for Best
Writing in 1999.
His
next HBO stand-up special, “Bigger & Blacker,” taped on the stage of Harlem’s
fabled Apollo Theatre, earned three Emmy nominations for Rock, while the CD
went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Spoken or Comedy Album. In 2003, Rock embarked on his North American
stand-up tour, entitled the “Black Ambition Tour” that ran in 64 cities with
over 80 shows through March of 2004. Rock’s following HBO special, Never
Scared, aired in April 2004, and was nominated for two Emmys. Its CD also
earned the Grammy for Best Comedy Album.
In 2008, Rock returned to the Apollo Theater in New York for his latest
HBO stand-up special “Kill the Messenger,” which also taped in London and South
Africa. The special earned Rock his fourth Emmy award.
Rock
hosted the 77th Annual Academy Awards® in 2005, as well as the MTV Video Music
Awards in 1999 and 2003. Rock’s debut
book, Rock This, spent time on both The New York Times and Wall
Street Journal bestseller lists.
Nominated
in 1999 for an Emmy Award for his memorable role as Dennis Finch, the
wise-cracking, power-hungry assistant on “Just Shoot Me,” DAVID SPADE (Marcus Higgins) became a household favorite during his
five-year stint as a cast member of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” The
comedian was also nominated for a Golden Globe 2000, and an American Comedy
Award in 1999, for his work on “Just Shoot Me,” Spade’s television and film
career continues to grow.
Most
recently Spade was seen on the seventh and final season of the CBS comedy “Rules
of Engagement.” The show is produced by Sony’s Happy Madison Productions and
centers around three men, in different stages of their relationships: married,
engaged and single. The half hour situational comedy stars Spade as the content
bachelor and serial dater, as the comedy follows this unique friendship. The
show has enjoyed excellent ratings in its first six seasons and continues to do
so in its seventh season.
Spade
was last heard as the voice of Griffin, an invisible man, in the hit animated
feature, Hotel Transylvania alongside
Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Steve Buscemi, Kevin James, and Andy Samberg to
name a few.
In
2010, Spade was seen on the big screen in the Happy Madison/ Sony comedy Grown Ups alongside Adam Sandler, Kevin
James, Salma Hayek, and Chris Rock. The film grossed $268 million worldwide.
Spade
was also seen on “The Showbiz Show” for Comedy Central. The show, which
Spade created, executive produced, hosted and wrote along with pal Hugh Fink
(former “SNL” writer). The critically acclaimed half hour comedy spoof on
Hollywood, a la Spade’s famed “Saturday Night Live” sketch “Hollywood Minute,”
featured Spade’s biting comedy and quick wit and he once again became a
favorite among fans and industry peers.
Spade
starred Sony’s box office hit Benchwarmers
about a trio of guys who try and make up for missed opportunities in childhood
by forming a three-player baseball team to compete against standard little
league squads. The film which also stars Jon Heder, Adam Sandler and Rob
Schneider opened at #1 in April 2006, making over $20 million in its first
weekend.
In
2003, Spade was seen starring in Paramount’s Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, which he co-wrote with Fred
Wolf. Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison
production company produced the film, which enjoyed a #1 opening weekend slot
at the box office.
In
2001, Spade starred in Columbia Tristar’s Joe
Dirt, which he also co-wrote. The
film enjoyed enormous success at the box-office and continues to be a top
selling DVD.
Spade
co-starred with “SNL” alumnus Chris Farley in the films Tommy Boy and Black Sheep,
and the pair won a 1996 MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo for the
former. His other feature credits include Reality Bites, Light Sleeper,
and Coneheads. In 1999, Spade starred the romantic comedy Lost & Found, for which he also
co-wrote the screenplay.
In
addition to “SNL,” Spade has guest-starred on the critically acclaimed “The
Larry Sanders Show” and appeared in HBO’s “13th Annual Young Comedians Special.”
In 1999 he headlined his own HBO special, “David Spade: Take the Hit.”
Born
in Birmingham, Michigan, and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona, Spade began his
career by performing stand-up comedy in clubs, theaters and colleges across the
country. He made his television debut on “SNL: and was soon named the Hot
Stand-Up Comedian of the Year by Rolling Stone magazine. Some of Spade’s
memorable characters on ‘SNL,” where he served as both a writer and a
performer, included the sarcastic “Hollywood Minute” reporter on “Weekend
Update” and he also started the catch phrases “And you are…?” and “Buh-Bye!”.
Academy Award® nominee SALMA HAYEK (Roxanne Chase-Feder) has proven herself as a prolific
actress, producer, and director, in both film and television. She received an
Academy Award® nomination, a Golden Globe nomination, a SAG nomination, and a
BAFTA nomination for Best Actress in the title role in Julie Taymor’s Frida.
Hayek recently starred in Oliver Stone’s Savages, opposite Blake Lively, John Travolta and Benicio del Toro,
and in Here Comes the Boom opposite
Kevin James.
On television, she was last seen guest starring on NBC’s critically
acclaimed show “30 Rock.” Hayek won an Emmy for her directorial debut “The
Maldonado Miracle,” which she also produced. The film, which starred Peter
Fonda, Mare Winningham, and Ruben Blades, premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film
Festival and later aired on Showtime. She has directed music videos for both
Prince and Jada Pinkett.
Hayek’s other film credits include: Alex de la Iglesia’s La Chispa de la Vida; Mathieu Demy’s Americano; the Academy Award®-nominated Puss In Boots with Antonio Banderas; Grown Ups, released by Columbia
Pictures, and alongside Adam Sandler, Kevin James, and Chris Rock; Paul Weitz’s
The Vampire’s Assistant, released by
Universal; Todd Robinson’s Lonely
Hearts, opposite John Travolta and James Gandolfini; Robert Towne’s Ask the Dust, alongside Colin Farrell
and Idina Menzel; Luc Besson’s Bandidas, opposite
Penelope Cruz; Brett Ratner’s After the
Sunset; Robert Rodriguez’s Once Upon
a Time in Mexico; Mike Figgis’ Hotel
and Timecode; Kevin Smith’s Dogma; From Dusk Till Dawn, directed by Robert Rodriquez and written by
Quentin Tarantino; and Robert Rodriguez’s Desperado.
Since 2006, Hayek and her producing partner Jose Tamez have been
developing, producing and acquiring mainstream projects that either draw on
Latin themes or feature Latin talent, both in front of and behind the camera
for ABC Studios. She served as the Executive Producer on ABC’s award-winning
program Ugly Betty, starring America
Ferrera, and based on the enormously successful Colombian series Yo Soy Betty, La Fea. In 2001, she
starred in and co-produced Showtime’s In
the Time of the Butterflies, for which she was nominated a Broadcast Film
Critics Association’s Award. Also produced by Hayek’s Ventanarosa Productions
was the Mexican feature No One Writes to
the Colonel, directed by Arturo Ripstein, and based on the novel by Gabriel
Garcia Marquez. No One Writes to the
Colonel was selected for official competition at the 1999 Cannes Film
Festival.
Born and raised in
Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, Hayek studied International Relations in college in
Mexico. Her additional Mexican credits include, Midaq Alley, based on a
novel by Nobel Prize recipient Naguib Mafouz.
Noted for her acting
career, Hayek has also dedicated much of her time to social activism. Hayek
served as spokesperson for the Pampers/UNICEF partnership worldwide, to help
stop the spread of life-threatening maternal and neonatal tetanus. She also
served as the spokesperson for the Avon Foundation’s Speak Out Against
Domestic Violence program, which focuses on domestic violence education,
awareness and prevention, as well as support for victims. In 2005, she spoke in
front the US Senate, encouraging its members to extend the Violence Against
Women Act. In January 2006, the legislation was passed, ensuring that 3.9
billion dollars will be allocated to thousands of domestic violence crises and
intervention agencies throughout the US. In April of 2005, Hayek visited the
Arctic Circle for the celebration of Earth Day, in an effort to bring attention
to the dangers that global warming is putting on the lives of the Inuit people
and the rest of the world. In November 2005, she served as co-host, alongside
Julianne Moore, at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, which honored Nobel
laureate Mohamed el-Baradei and the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency.
She was also part of the One campaign that singer and activist Bono created, as
well as a member of Global Green, and Youth Aids.
MAYA RUDOLPH (Deanna McKenzie) is most widely known for her
turn on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” where she was one of the show’s regular
players for over seven years. Since her debut in 2000, Rudolph’s memorable
portrayals included Oprah Winfrey, Whitney Houston, Donatella Versace and
Beyoncé as well as such recurring sketches as “Wake Up Wakefield” and “Bronx
Beat.” Also on the small screen, she
starred as Ava on the NBC comedy “Up All Night” for executive producer Lorne
Michaels.
Rudolph
will next be seen in The Way, Way Back,
the directorial debut of Oscar® winning writers Jim Rash and Nat Faxon. The
film received rave reviews at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and will be
released by Fox Searchlight in summer 2013.
Additionally, Rudolph voiced the role of Burn in the upcoming DreamWorks
Animations film Turbo, in theatres
July 19, 2013, and is currently in production on the animated film, The Nut Job.
Rudolph
starred in Paul Feig’s comedy Bridesmaids,
which has grossed nearly $300 million in the box office worldwide and garnered
numerous accolades since it opened May 13, 2011. In addition to being nominated
for two Academy Awards®, Bridesmaids
was nominated for a Golden Globe® for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and
won the following awards: the 2011 AFI Film Award for AFI Movie of the Year,
the 2012 Critics Choice Movie Award for Best Comedy Movie, the 2012 People’s
Choice Award for Favorite Comedy Movie, and Comedy Central’s 2012 Comedy Award
for Best Film.
Most
recently, Rudolph teamed up with musician Gretchen Liberum to form the
female-fronted Prince cover band “Princess.”
In tribute to His Purple Majesty, the duo became an immediate internet
success last year when they performed “Darling Nikki” on “Late Night with Jimmy
Fallon.” Since then, the band has
continued performing hit-after-hit as Prince fans everywhere have tuned in
praising their pristine mimicry of the artist.
Rudolph
has lent her voice to such films as Zookeeper
and Shrek the Third, and has appeared
in Friends With Kids, Grown Ups, Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion, Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, and Miguel Arteta’s Chuck & Buck.
In
2009, she earned rave reviews for her performance opposite John Krasinski in
the comedic and heartfelt film Away We Go,
directed by Sam Mendes from a script by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida.
MARIA BELLO (Sally Lamonsoff) has captivated audiences with
her many diverse roles in such films as The Cooler with William H. Macy
(Golden Globe and SAG Nomination), David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence
opposite Viggo Mortenson and Ed Harris (NY Film Critics win and Golden Globe
nomination), Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, Thank You for
Smoking, and The Jane Austen Book Club. In addition, she co-starred
with Brendan Fraser in The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, in Alan
Ball’s controversial film Towelhead, and opposite William Hurt in Yellow
Handkerchief. In recent years, Bello has played opposite Michael
Sheen in Beautiful Boy, Adam Sandler in the hit comedy Grown Ups,
and Taylor Lautner in Abduction; she also took a lead role in the John
Wells drama The Company Men. Her upcoming films include roles in
Paul Haggis’s Third Person, Prisoners opposite Hugh Jackman, and the
untitled James Wan thriller.
Bello’s
other film credits include Auto Focus, Permanent Midnight, Payback,
Flicka, Duets, Coyote Ugly, Secret Window, Silver
City, and Assault on Precinct 13.
On
television, Bello most recently starred as Detective Jane Timoney in the NBC
series “Prime Suspect” and appeared for one season in the role of the
passionate and headstrong pediatrician Dr. Anna Del Amico in NBC’s critically
acclaimed series “ER.”
Bello
is also an internationally renowned activist and one of the world’s most
powerful voices for social justice and women’s rights around the world, with a
special focus on Haiti. She is the co-founder of We Advance, a women’s
movement and NGO based in Cite Soleil, which advocates for women throughout the
country to have full political, economic and social participation.
Since
2008, Bello has worked in Haiti with Artists for Peace and Justice and Femmes
en Democratie, where she raised funds and produced a women’s media campaign for
the elections in 2010, and spearheaded the opening of a women’s clinic in the
Petionville Camp immediately following the earthquake. Bello is also a
member of the Clinton Global Initiative and works on gender policy within the
Haiti Network. She has been named a Vital Voices Global Ambassador for
women and participated in the first ever Vital Voices/Bank of American
International Women’s Conference in Haiti.
Bello
speaks around the world on social impact investing, Haiti, and women’s
rights. In 2012, she was a keynote speaker at the State Department’s
Forum on Impact Investing and was also awarded with the Starkey Foundation’s
“So the World May Hear” Award. She was named the Goodwill Ambassador for
Women in Haiti and leads President Martelly’s Council for Investments in Haiti
on a committee for women’s empowerment, social business and poverty alleviation
with Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. Bello is currently speaking
at Tedx and other venues in the world about the “new women’s revolution” and
impact investing for women. Bello is also the founder of the new website
We Advance University, which aims to connect and empower women in Haiti and
throughout the world, and she is a partner in the company Socme Academy, which
powers the site. Along with her Haitian colleagues, she is building the
first women’s co-op bakery in Marigaux, Haiti.
She
began her career as an activist at Villanova University, where she majored in
Peace and Justice Education and worked at the Women’s Law Project in
Philadelphia. She started her first NGO, The Dreamyard Drama Project in
Harlem in 1997. In 2009, Bello was voted on of Variety’s most
powerful women in Hollywood for her activism with women in Darfur.
Every so often, a
comedian comes along who emerges as a triple threat: comedian, actor and writer/producer. NICK
SWARDSON (Nick) is the latest and most exciting artist take on these
roles. He recently co-created and
starred in Comedy Central’s “Nick Swardson’s Pretend Time” series.
The road to success
has been a steady climb for Swardson, who started his career in St. Paul/Minneapolis,
then on to New York and Los Angeles, where he first struck feature success in
writing Malibu’s Most Wanted for
Warner Bros., which starred Jamie Kennedy.
After catching the attention of Happy Madison Productions, he quickly
became a fixture in the company, writing or co-writing and producing such
projects as Grandma’s Boy, Benchwarmers and co-producing I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry with Adam Sandler and Kevin James.
His first CD/DVD, “Party,” on Comedy
Central Records (produced by Happy Madison) has sold tremendously and the DVD
was just certified platinum. Swardson
followed this up with the release of his second CD on Comedy Central Records,
simply titled, “Seriously, Who Farted?”
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
DENNIS DUGAN (Director)
is a talented filmmaker whose diverse
career in entertainment spans over two decades. Dugan is considered one
of the industry’s top feature film comedy directors, whose films have taken in
more than $1 billion worldwide. He
earned his reputation with such hits as Happy
Gilmore, Big Daddy, You Don’t Mess
with the Zohan and I Now Pronounce
You Chuck & Larry. His other films include The Benchwarmers, starring Rob Schneider, David Spade, and Jon
Lovitz, National Security, starring
Martin Lawrence, Saving Silverman,
starring Jack Black, Steve Zahn, and Amanda Peet; and Beverly Hills Ninja, starring Chris Farley.
Dugan
most recently directed Jack and Jill,
starring Adam Sandler and Katie Holmes, Just
Go With It, starring Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, and Grown Ups, starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David
Spade, Rob Schneider and Salma Hayek. He
also recently executive produced the film That’s
My Boy.
On
the small screen, Dugan has directed dozens of television projects including, “NYPD
Blue,” “Moonlighting,” and “Ally McBeal,” as well as the telepics “Columbo: Butterfly Shades of Gray” and “The
Shaggy Dog.”
Dugan
is an actor-turned-filmmaker who began his career in the New York theater scene
and first made his mark in Hollywood in front of the camera. He starred
in his own NBC television series, “Richie Brockelman, Private Eye,” and also
guest-starred on such award-winning television programs as “M*A*S*H,” “Columbo,”
“The Rockford Files,” and “Hill Street Blues.”
In
addition to small, yet memorable, acting roles in his own films, Dugan’s
feature-film credits include roles in Parenthood, She’s Having a Baby, Can’t Buy Me Love and The Howling.
ADAM SANDLER (Producer / Co-Writer / Lenny Feder) Please
see bio in Cast section.
JACK GIARRAPUTO (Producer) is one of Hollywood’s most successful
producers. His films have grossed more
than $2 billion domestically and over $3 billion worldwide, with 13 films
topping the $100-million mark domestically.
These films include Just Go With
It, Grown Ups, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Bedtime
Stories, You Don’t Mess With
the Zohan, I Now Pronounce You
Chuck & Larry, Click, The Longest Yard, 50 First Dates, Anger Management, Mr. Deeds, Big Daddy and The
Waterboy.
FRED WOLF (Co-Writer) co-wrote Grown Ups with Adam Sandler.
He has directed two films: the box-office hit The House Bunny, starring Anna Faris, and Strange Wilderness, starring Steve Zahn, Justin Long, and Jonah
Hill.
Wolf
began his career as a writer, and later head writer, on “Saturday Night Live”
from 1992-1997, and moved on to feature writing with Tommy Boy and Black Sheep, both starring Chris Farley and
David Spade; Dirty Work, which
starred Norm MacDonald and Chevy Chase; and Joe
Dirt, another David Spade vehicle.
Wolf
started his career in comedy doing stand-up.
ADAM SANDLER (Co-Writer / Producer / Lenny Feder) Please
see bio in Cast section.
TIM HERLIHY (Co-Writer) has written or co-written the films Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding
Singer, The Waterboy, Big Daddy, Little Nicky, Mr. Deeds, Bedtime Stories. He served as executive producer on the
films Grown Ups, Click, Anger Management,
The Longest Yard, Just Go With It, Jack
and Jill and That’s My Boy.
From 1994 to 1999, Herlihy served as writer, head writer and ultimately
producer of the television variety series “Saturday Night Live,” for which he
received an Emmy Award® nomination.
In 2006, Herlihy, a former attorney, was nominated for a Tony Award® for
the Broadway musical version of “The Wedding Singer,” which he co-wrote.
BARRY BERNARDI
(Executive Producer) most recently executive produced That’s My Boy, starring
Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg, Jack and
Jill, starring Sandler and Katie Holmes, Zookeeper, starring Kevin James and Rosario Dawson, Just Go With It, starring Sandler and
Jennifer Aniston, and Grown Ups,
starring Sandler, James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider and David Spade. He also produced the blockbuster hit Paul Blart Mall Cop starring Kevin
James, and Bucky Larson: Born to Be a
Star, starring Nick Swardson.
He served as
executive producer on the films You Don’t
Mess With The Zohan, starring Adam Sandler, John Turturro and Emmanuelle
Chriqui; I Now Pronounce You Chuck &
Larry, starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Jessica Biel; Click,
starring Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale and Christopher Walken; The Benchwarmers, starring
Rob Schneider, David Spade and Jon Heder; and the box-office hit The Longest
Yard, starring Sandler, Chris Rock and Burt Reynolds.
Other films he
produced include Anger Management, starring Adam Sandler and Jack
Nicholson; Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo;
The Master of Disguise; and The
Animal. As executive producer, Bernardi has worked on
the features The Haunted Mansion,
Double Take, Inspector Gadget,
My Favorite Martian, Deep Rising, Tom and Huck, Cabin Boy,
The Adventures of Huck Finn and Devil’s
Advocate. His other producer
credits include Poltergeist III and Honey,
We Shrunk Ourselves.
After attending
the California Institute of the Arts, Bernardi began his career as a story
editor and producer’s assistant. In
1979, he teamed with director John Carpenter to be an associate producer on The
Fog and Escape From New York. He remained with Carpenter to
co-produce Halloween II, Halloween III, Christine and Starman.
From 1987-89,
Bernardi served as senior vice president of production at New World Pictures,
where he oversaw the development, production and release of such films as Heathers, Meet
the Applegates and Warlock.
Bernardi went on
to co-found Steve White Productions.
With White, he produced more than 25 telefilms. Among their credits are Amityville, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, She Said No, The Carolyn Warmus Story, She Stood Alone and A Mom for Christmas.
For nearly two
decades, ALLEN COVERT (Executive Producer)
has built a multi-hyphenate career as an actor, producer, writer, and
songwriter. It was all put into motion years earlier with a seemingly fated
seating assignment in a “History of Comedy” class at the NYU Tisch School of
the Arts. His friendship with fellow student Adam Sandler quickly gelled, in
part due to Covert’s proclivity for supplying Sandler with free food from the
Italian restaurant where he worked as night manager.
Covert has
co-written, co-produced, and/or starred in a number of the Happy Madison films
over the years, including Happy Gilmore,
Bulletproof, The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy, Big Daddy (as actor,
associate producer and writer of “The Kangaroo Song”), Little Nicky (actor, associate producer), Mr. Deeds, Eight Crazy Nights (actor, producer, soundtrack writer/producer),
Anger Management (actor, executive
producer), 50 First Dates (actor,
songwriter), The Longest Yard (actor,
executive producer), I Now Pronounce You
Chuck & Larry (actor,
co-producer), Grown Ups (executive
producer), Just Go With It (executive
producer), Jack and Jill (executive
producer), and That’s My Boy (producer).
He also
co-scripted Sony’s hit comedy The
Benchwarmers (starring David Spade, Rob Schneider, and Jon Heder). He co-wrote, produced, and starred in the
cult comedy hit Grandma’s Boy with
Nick Swardson, produced and starred in the comedy Strange Wilderness, and produced the comedies The House Bunny and Bucky
Larson: Born to Be a Star. He has
also written, produced, and performed on five comedy albums, which have
collectively sold nearly 10 million copies, including Adam Sandler’s “What’s
Your Name,” “They’re All Gonna Laugh at You,” and “What the Hell Happened to
Me!”
Covert currently
resides in Los Angeles with his wife Kathryn and their young daughters, Hannah,
Abigail, and Rebecca.
THEO VAN de SANDE, ASC (Director of
Photography) reunites with director
Dennis Dugan, who he recently worked with on the comedies Just Go With It
and Grown Ups and first worked with on Big Daddy.
Directly after
finishing the shoot of Grown Ups 2,
Van de Sande continued with director Gary Fleder in New Orleans for the film Homefront, a harsh action thriller with
James Franco, Jason Stetham, Winona Ryder and Kate Bosworth.
Joe Dante’s “family”
thriller The Hole, was his first digital-3D film and the winner of the
Premio Persol, the first Award for Best use of 3D at the 2009 Venice film
Festival.
Another recent
release is the romantic Vietnam drama Love
and Honor with Liam Hemsworth and Teresa Palmer, the directorial debut of
Danny Mooney.
A graduate of
the Dutch Film Academy, Van de Sande began working as a director of photography
in his native Holland in 1972. Since then, he has been a DP on more than fifty
feature films and nine feature-length documentaries. For his body of work on
Dutch features, documentaries, and shorts, he has twice received the
prestigious Golden Calf award. The
Assault his last film in Holland got the Academy and Golden Globe Award for
best foreign film.
Van de Sande
relocated to Los Angeles in 1987. Since then, he has worked with directors as
diverse as Robert Wise, Garry Marshall, Joan Micklin Silver, Lasse Hallstrom,
Penelope Spheeris, Carl Franklin, Mick Jackson, and Gary Fleder. Among his feature films are Crossing
Delancey, Miracle Mile, Once Around, Volcano, Blade,
Cruel Intentions, High Crimes and Out of Time.
Colors
Straight Up, one of the 5
feature length documentaries he shot for his wife and director Michele Ohayon,
was nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Feature Length Documentary and
won nine other National Awards.
His
contributions to American television include “Tuesdays with Morrie,” the pilot
episode of “The Practice,” “The Riches,” five episodes of “October Road”
, the double pilot of “Happy Town,” and, most recently, the pilot of “Beauty and
the Beast.”
The Silent
Army, a very emotional and
engaging film about the horror of child soldiers in Northern Uganda, shot in
Uganda and South Africa and directed by Jean Van de Velde, got critical acclaim
at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and reconnected him with the Dutch film biz.
After an extensive career working in the New
York theater community, AARON
OSBORNE (Production Designer)
brought his critically acclaimed show “Theatre Carnivale” to Los Angeles.
The show continued a successful three-year run, consistently being chosen as
one of LA Weekly’s “Picks-of-the-Week.” He followed his bi-coastal
success with the play “Acid Warehouse,” which was produced for New York’s
Franklin Furnace Theater and Los Angeles’ Tamirand Theater with an NEA grant. As recipient of an LA Arts Endowment Grant,
Osborne provided LA theater-goers with the performance piece, “Peter
Pandamonium At Lace.”
After permanently relocating to Los Angeles,
Osborne then segued to designing feature films, working under the tutelage of
cult director Roger Corman on Carnasaur. His feature film credits include the
heartwarming I Am Sam, starring Sean
Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer, the edgy Another Day In Paradise, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, and Sex Drive.
Other credits include the Wayans family’s Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in The Hood, as well as the television series “Eli
Stone,” and “E-Ring.” Osborne
reached a career highlight when he accepted the 2003 Emmy Award for his design
work on the hit television series “Without a Trace.” Osborne most recently
finished designed the George C. Wolfe film You’re Not You starring Hilary
Swank; he is currently in pre-production in South Africa, working on The Good Lie starring Reese Witherspoon,
the story of the lost boys of Sudan.
TOM COSTAIN (Editor)
most recently edited the feature films That’s
My Boy, Jack and Jill, Just Go With It, Grown Ups, Bedtime Stories, and
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. His
other credits as editor include Grandma’s
Boy, Strange Wilderness, and the pilot of the Will Ferrell produced HBO
series “Eastbound and Down.” Costain was
an editor on Get Smart, starring
Steve Carell, as well as The Last
Saturday in May, a documentary about the path to the 2006 Kentucky
Derby.
ELLEN LUTTER (Costume
Designer) is Brooklyn-based and happily counts among her credits such East
Coast films as Trust starring Clive
Owen and Catherine Keener, Grown Ups,
starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider and David Spade, Paul Blart Mall Cop, Fresh, Flirting
With Disaster, Copland, Living in Oblivion, Mississippi
Masala, 28 Days, Big Daddy and House of D.
Thanks to the
miracle of jet travel and the superhuman miracle of loyal Los Angeles bosses,
Lutter has had the privilege of designing 12 West Coast films for Adam Sandler
and Jack Giarraputo’s Happy Madison.
These films include That’s My Boy,
Jack and Jill, Just Go With It, You Don’t
Mess with the Zohan, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Click, The Longest Yard, Anger Management, Mr. Deeds, 50 First Dates and
Little Nicky.
When not working
on a film, Lutter spends time side-by-side working with her husband at their
Brooklyn based hot dog store “Willie’s Dawgs.”
RUPERT
GREGSON-WILLIAMS (Music By) has scored
a wide variety of film and television projects. Gregson-Williams has also
written the original scores to the Adam Sandler films That’s My Boy, Jack and Jill,
Just Go With It, Grown Ups, Bedtime Stories,
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Click, and Zookeeper. His work was most recently heard in Here Comes the Boom, starring Kevin
James. Other films include Made of Honor and the animated films Bee Movie and Over the Hedge. In 2004, he collaborated with Andrea Guerra to
compose the score for the acclaimed true-life drama Hotel Rwanda, for which the composers won the European Film
Award. He also composed the score for
the British television series “The Prisoner.”
Gregson-Williams has
also created the scores for such feature films as the teen comedy What a Girl Wants, the biographical
comedy-drama The Night We Called It a Day,
Crime Spree, Plots with a View, Thunderpants,
Virtual Sexuality, and Urban Ghost Story.
He has also
collaborated with composer Hans Zimmer on a number of animated and live-action
features.
“Academy
Award®” and “Oscar®” are the registered trademarks and service marks of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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