Peter Segal Talks The Longest Yard Remake
Paramount’s remake of The Longest Yard has “much more action and drama than I’ve done, but still has comedy to it.” The film stars Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Burt Reynolds, and Gary Oldman.
The original 1974 comedy-drama movie also starred Reynolds, as an incarcerated former pro quarterback who is asked by a sadistic warden to put together a team of inmates to play a team of burly guards. In the new version, Sandler will fill Reynolds’ boots, Oldman will play the warden, Rock a caretaker and Reynolds a coach.
Segal says Sandler has committed to the physicality of the role. “He’s currently working out with Sean Salsbury, a 14-year NFL veteran quarterback. He’s training with him. We actually have a pretty intense basketball sequence in the movie. He’s working on that. And we’re writing into the story that he’s six years out of the pros, so a little rustiness is actually good for the character, but he is working on his skills right now very seriously.”
