Adam Sandler’s ‘Happy Gilmore’ costar Christopher McDonald recently claimed Sandler showed him a draft of a script for a sequel to the 1996 golf comedy

Drew Barrymore Adam Sandler new york 10 26 22

Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler on Oct. 26, 2022. PHOTO: CRAIG BARRITT/GETTY

Drew Barrymore is on the hunt for news of Adam Sandler’s rumored Happy Gilmore sequel.

On the April 5 episode of Barrymore’s morning talk show, the actress and host, 49, shared recent reports that her longtime friend Sandler, 57, “may have written the first draft for Happy Gilmore 2” — and she went directly to her pal to find out more.

“Are you kidding me? I want it, I need it, and I stayed up last night with my daughter watching Billy Madison,” Barrymore said during the show, noting another of Sandler’s classic 1990s comedies. “I sent Sandler a video of that, and then he sent me another video back and I’m waiting to see if he’s confirming about the Happy Gilmore 2 script.”

While waiting on Sandler’s response, Barrymore noted that Christopher McDonald, who costarred in the 1996 golf comedy, recently said that Sandler has shown him a first draft of a Happy Gilmore sequel script.

“So this just in, breaking news: I’ll just say this, from my source, that it is in process,” Barrymore later shared, presumably after receiving a response from Sandler himself. “There is a process and that process is in process.”

McDonald, 69, recently shared the news himself during a March interview on Audacy’s 92.3 The Fan.

 “Maybe you should cut that out because I don’t want to be a liar, but he did show me that, and I thought, ‘Wow, that would be awesome,’ ” he said, after claiming Sandler had shown him the script.  “So it’s in the works. Fans demand it, damn it.”

A representative for Sandler had no comment when reached by PEOPLE at that time.

Happy Gilmore

Adam Sandler in 1996’s Happy Gilmore.UNIVERSAL/KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK

Sandler memorably co-wrote, produced and starred in Happy Gilmore as a New England-area hockey player who takes up golfing as a means to make money in order to save his grandmother’s home from foreclosure. He finds success on the golf course with a signature hockey-style swing and tutelage from a former pro, “Chubbs” Peterson (Carl Weathers), and comes to clash with McDonald’s antagonist Shooter McGavin after joining a professional golf tour.

Aside from Sandler, McDonald and Weathers, who died at 76 in February, Happy Gilmore‘s cast also featured Julie Bowen, Frances Bay, Allen Covert, Kevin Nealon and the late Joe Flaherty, who died at 82 on April 2.

 

HAPPY GILMORE

Adam Sandler (right) in 1996’s Happy Gilmore. UNIVERSAL/COURTESY EVERETT

Sandler wrote a tribute to Flaherty on Instagram following news of his death, writing that Flaherty — who played a heckler paid by McGavin to throw Happy off his game in the movie — was “the nicest guy you could know.”

Happy Gilmore made $38 million at the domestic box office upon its release in 1996; it is unclear what story a potential sequel would follow.