The Adam Sandler comedy Big Daddy was originally supposed to have a different title.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, producer Sid Ganis and co-writer Steve Franks reflected on the movie’s legacy after 25 years and revealed the “perfect title” it was meant to have.
“The title of the script was Guy Gets Kid,” Ganis told the outlet. “I read it, and Alex Siskin, who worked for me, read it, and we thought, ‘This is good.’ ”
Franks also defended the axed title. “I thought Guy Gets Kid was the perfect title because it tells you everything you need to know about the movie in three words,” he said. “But I guess you could also interpret it as kidnapping.”
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The co-writer, who is credited for the screenplay along with Sandler and Tim Herlihy, said he wrote the spec for the movie while working at Disneyland. He saw his co-workers “going off to real jobs” and thought, “There was a solid chance that I could be a guy who’s 30 years old and at Disneyland,” Franks recalled.
Franks said that train of thought inspired the movie, which follows a man (Sandler) who adopts a 5-year-old boy (played by Dylan and Cole Sprouse) to impress his ex-girlfriend.
When it came to casting Sandler as the lead, Ganis said that they locked their eyes on him after attending a test screening of The Wedding Singer. However, the studio pushed for a “big movie star” instead.
“So there was [a film exhibition] convention in Las Vegas, and Amy Pascal, who was the head of Columbia, agreed to go to Vegas, where she saw Wedding Singer and met Sandler. He is a fine, fine, fine man, and Amy saw that immediately,” he said.
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In retrospect, Franks called Sandler a “quiet, sweet guy. It was such a smooth, easy process.”
Other celebrities who came into talks for the role, as revealed in the interview, were Chris Farley, John Cusak and John Travolta.
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The two filmmakers also addressed the potential of the movie getting a sequel with neither of them outright denying the possibility.
“There are always rumblings about a sequel when a movie is a smash hit. But thank goodness, we knew better. It’s better that Big Daddy is what it is,” said Ganis.
Franks, on the other hand, said, “It’s something that I would certainly be interested in revisiting again because it’s such a fun field to play in, and there are a lot of great opportunities. If they ever wanted to make a series or a sequel, I would be absolutely the first one to line up.”
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Meanwhile, Sandler has had his hands full with recent projects with Netflix, including his successful Murder Mystery film series, You Are So Not Invited To My Bar Mitzvah – which also starred his two daughters – and Spaceman.
He is now working on the Netflix comedy Kinda Pregnant and is set to star in Noah Baumbach’s latest work for the streaming platform.
