If you’ve asked your golf ball if it’s too good for its home, spent more time in the sand than David Hasselhoff, or taken a running start before hitting your drive, you just might be a Happy Gilmore fan. Salty critics can stick it where the sun don’t shine, because the 1996 film is a classic that still holds up to this day. Perhaps that’s why demand for a long-awaited sequel has persisted, and thanks to Shooter McGavin star Christopher McDonald, we finally have a substantial update on a second movie.
As reported by Variety, according to a recent interview McDonald gave, he’s seen a draft of the script for Happy Gilmore 2 from Happy himself, Adam Sandler.
That’s right. The silver screen legend who can hit a drive 400 yards and makes holes-in-one on par 4s seems destined to make a long-awaited comeback.
McDonald has embraced his “Shooter” persona and seems so at peace with that being his most iconic role. It’s the perfect intersection of actor and character. Even though Happy Gilmore is a comedy, McDonald’s Shooter makes for one of the best pound-for-pound villains in cinematic history in my humble opinion. The fact that he’s so menacing and hilarious at the same time is an almost impossible combination to pull off.
A big win to come from Happy Gilmore that continues to pay dividends is the Shooter McGavin X/Twitter account. Never disappoints, even during something like Kentucky’s latest March Madness collapse.
The big question is, what is a worthy story after all this time? Having just covered the teaser trailer for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice yesterday, there’s always the danger of nostalgia blinding even the most capable creative talents in Hollywood from questing forth on an ill-fated sequel. Happy Gilmore released at the peak of Sandler’s powers as a bankable box office star. Nowadays, he still makes his comedies with all his pals, but every now and then, he’ll veer off into more dramatic territory, like with the Safdie Brothers’ Uncut Gems or Netflix’s recent feature, Spaceman.
While I don’t think Happy Gilmore 2 would be some self-serious antihero type of story, Sandler being so much older adds a fascinating new layer to the mix. Happy can’t be a full-on man-child anymore. Then you have Shooter, who could play up that menace-hilarity blend with a kind of monomaniacal quest for vengeance upon the man who stole his Tour Championship gold jacket.
Whatever the case may be as far as plot is concerned, I’m cautiously optimistic that Happy Gilmore 2 would be a great idea. If Sandler already has a lengthy script penned, there must’ve been some sort of compelling hook that drove him to finish it. That is exciting to ponder in and of itself.
THIS IS SHOOTER’S TOUR.
