Jennifer Aniston To Be Adam Sandler's 'Pretend Wife'

Here's a story clearly intended for somebody else. Adam Sandler, who hasn't made a very funny movie in years and years, will team up with Jennifer Aniston to make - gasp - a Dennis Dugan comedy. It's called Pretend Wife, and it - gasp - already has a release date (February 11, 2011). Where oh where do I sign up? It's a Happy Madison picture, which explains the Dugan connection, and it's based on a script called Holiday in Hawaii, about which there are few details. I can speculate, though, that Sandler somehow arranges for Aniston to pose as his wife for a big ocassion, and even though she objects at first, eventually she falls for the lovable lug. Just a guess. Columbia plans to shoot the film early next year, and I should point out that Dugan isn't technically attached yet, but given his history with Sandler (six films so far), what are the odds he'll pass? I looked back at Sandler's filmography, and it's really spotty over the past decade or so. Anger Management is probably the best outright comedy he's done in the past ten years, and that was 2003. His dramatic work has been hit-or-miss, too, but it's been more consistent than the Happy Maddison stuff. But he hasn't been the box office darling he was even in 2005, which is probably symptomatic of new comedians become audience favorites. Aniston, it seems, still needs very particular projects to be successful in films. Her indie work barely attracts audiences, and the best she's ever done without an A-list leading man at her side is probably The Object of My Affection, which was in 1998. Since then, unless she's been paired with a Jim Carrey, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, or Vince Vaughn - all of whom are historically bigger box office draws than she is - Aniston doesn't do a whole lot. In this instance, Sony is betting that two very familiar faces for the 30-and-over crowd can curry favor on Valentine's weekend, quickly becoming a key destination for Aniston. It'll be her second movie in three years on the made-up holiday, following He's Just Not That Into You.

Comments

[Vince]

Eh, "Rumor Has It" and 'Derailed" did alright considering, and it can be argued that she was the biggest star in those movies.

Besides that, I'm sure that this is a pretty safe bet for everyone involved. Jennifer Aniston is doing the romantic comedy thing, Adam Sandler is doing a big-budget slapstick comedy, Dennis Dugan is getting directing work, etc. It sounds good on paper, kinda like how "Grown Ups" plays it safe as a "bro-centric" comedy.
It probably won't be extremely horrible or anything; Sandler's way too talented to make an offensively bad comedy, a la "Epic Movie". But I'm not getting my hopes up that this'll be the Sandler movie we've all been waiting for.

[Get The Big Picture]

"Sandler's way too talented to make an offensively bad comedy..."

You haven't seen Little Nicky or Eight Crazy Nights, I take it.