SNL alum David Spade is jumping from co-starring in Adam Sandler’s Netflix movies to leading an HBO comedy series created by Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody. The pair responsible for Tully, Young Adult and Juno, reunite to tell the story of a formerly heroin-addicted grunge musician (Spade), and the young actress who changes his life.
Rising to fame on Saturday Night Live during the 1990s - alongside the likes of Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, and Chris Rock - Spade was known for his often snarky, dismissive characters as well as a segment titled “Spade in America”. From there, the budding comedian went on to star in films like Tommy Boy and Joe Dirt, and also voiced Kuzco in Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove. In recent years, Spade has starred in several critically panned (but highly watched) Netflix films, including The Do-Over, The Ridiculous 6, and Father of the Year. This summer, Spade unveiled a memoir entitled A Polaroid Guy in a Snapchat World, centered on aging, a theme likely to carry over into his upcoming HBO project.
Deadline reports that Cody wrote the script and will produce, while Reitman will direct, as is the formula for all of the pair’s previously mentioned collaborations. Spade is also listed as a producer for the currently untitled series. His younger female co-star has yet to be cast.
This isn’t the only upcoming project fans can expect to see from Reitman and Cody; they’re working on several things individually. Reitman has a feature opening wide in a few weeks, The Front Runner, that focuses on the Gary Hart scandal that permanently altered the rhetoric of American politics. Cody, on the other hand, is focused on television, and the two projects she has with Fox.
This casting isn’t that big a jump for Spade, as he’s played a washed up star before in the poorly received Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. Unfortunately, “poorly received” is a phrase that can be applied to a large swath of Spade’s projects in the last two decades. The once popular Tommy Boy star could well have faded into complete obscurity by now, were it not for his friendship with Sandler. Hopefully, this HBO series will give him an opportunity to prove his comedic chops. The powerful writer/director duo involved and the high general standard HBO sets for its original content, could perhaps finally pull an underutilized talent like David Spade gracefully out of the 1990s.
More: David Spade Says Steven Seagal Was The Worst Saturday Night Live Host
Source: Deadline
