Adam Sandler will return for “Grown Ups 3,” which is in development at Netflix, the streamer announced during its upfront presentation Wednesday.
Sandler will write the script for the sequel with Tim Herlihy. “Happy Gilmore 2” director Kyle Newacheck is attached to direct “Grown Ups 3.”
Sandler is also producing the project with Jackie Sandler, Jack Giarraputo and Tim Herlihy. Kevin Grady and Judit Maull are the executive producers.
The last film in the franchise, “Grown Ups 2,” was released by Sony Pictures in 2013. The film centered on a group of arrested development guys together for a weekend of bonding in scenic New England — Adam Sandler, Kevin James, David Spade and Chris Rock.
Reviews were blistering. The film eked out an abominable 8 percent “rotten” rating on the critics aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
TheWrap’s Alonso Duralde found one silver lining — noting that at least this edition didn’t bring back the original film’s co-star Rob Schneider for seconds. Sandler and crew, Duralde quipped, are less funny than an inflatable raft that shares the screen with them in two scenes.
“Granted, no one is going to ‘Grown Ups 2’ for the plot, but the jokes here are asinine, immature, offensive to women and to almost everyone else on the planet who isn’t a middle-aged heterosexual male,” Duralde wrote. “And that’s not even counting the continuing presence of Nick Swardson.”
Regardless of the reviews, “Grown Ups 2” was a hit and grossed $246,984,278 worldwide against a production budget of $80 million.
It is currently unknown if Kevin James, David Spade and Chris Rock will return for “Grown Ups 3.”