The seth-rogenization of Adam Sandler.

Clearly I don't pay enough attention to the career of Adam Sandler, because I didn't realize until just recently that Sandler's next movie in production is a collaboration with producer/director/writer Judd Apatow. Maybe this doesn't seem like such a big deal; after all, the pair have already worked together on YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN earlier this year, which Sandler starred in and cowrote with Apatow. But still, I think the pair's new project - FUNNY PEOPLE, slated for release in 2009 - suggests a fairly big shift in terms of Sandler's career, and could lead to what I'll call a Seth Rogen-type effect for the actor. To be honest, I'm not a big Sandler fan. His earlier movies HAPPY GILMORE and BILLY MADISON are fine enough, easy diversions. I think of them as excellent movies to run in the background while I'm loading the dishwasher - and if you couldn't tell, that's not really a compliment. I apply that same low standard to ARMAGEDDON. But Sandler has a talent for creating at least one truly memorable comic setpiece per movie, as well as the ability to make some decent money at the box office. His schtick - although it's one that rarely does much for me - endures. And if we judge Sandler by the trailer for his upcoming BEDTIME STORIES, clearly we're in for more of the same. Lame-to-awful jokes, cloying sentimentality, physical humor involving pain, and a preference on my part to be clubbed with a socket wrench rather than go see it. Apatow, on the other hand, is much more of a rising star. Since the 2005 release of THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, Apatow can take responsibility for the the resurgence of the R-rated, Regular Guy Comedy in which not-marquee type actors portray guys like we see around us each day - only they're funnier, more resourceful and always get the girl in the end like movie characters should. Apatow instills a sense of emotionality, insecurity - a humanity - that Sandler's characters typically lack. He defines his comedy in how these guys relate to each other and the women in their lives, much more so than how they take a baseball to the nuts, which seems too often to be the case in Sandler's movies. At first, I figured that Sandler's interest in working under Apatow as a director was because Sandler was on a downslope of box office returns at this point in his career. But click on this nifty graph I made - oh so scientifically - and you can see a comparison of Sandler's box office numbers (in green) from his last seven movies with Apatow's last seven movies that he directed and/or produced (in purple). The two obvious things you notice from this graph are that not only have Sandler's movies rather consistently out-performed Apatow's, but the pair's financial track records are extremely similar. So if we conjecture that Sandler doesn't have a financial motivation to work with Apatow, what else might it be? I think we find the answer when we take a look at the pair's critical ratings for those same seven movies, as reported by Rotten Tomatoes: Maybe Sandler can proudly point at the financial success of his movie career, but the perceived quality of those movies is a low-end rollercoaster ride - and it's markedly below that of Apatow's movies. I think that Sandler has come to realize a certain limitation of his usual movie shtick. I think he seeks an outlet with Apatow that will allow him to grow as an actor, find the humor in a more realistic, believable character, and maybe show us some depth that we probably don't think he has. Sandler's less-comic roles - PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, REIGN OVER ME - tend to score with critics, but not audiences. He can handle something more as an actor, but knows his fanbase doesn't want him to. Working with Apatow suggests a better balance for Sandler, an opportunity where his comic skills can be invested in a more realistic world where the conflicts and narrative pay off better. He seeks sethrogenization - a validation of his talents and value as an actor and comedian at the same time. What's more, Sandler's typical mode of carrying the movie himself will change with Apatow's FUNNY PEOPLE in which regulars from the director's growing stable such as Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Leslie Mann will share the screen. This also strikes me as a meaningful shift for Sandler, one that could similarly lead to a better-quality result. And besides, any Sandler movie without Rob Schneider listed in the credits has to be a good thing, right? Contributed by Alan Lopuszynski, a former Hollywood insider and current corporate drone who blogs atBurbanked.