The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Special Guest Will Fetters, 'Hustle' Writer

Episode Date: June 10, 2022

Adam Sandler's new film "Hustle" debuted on Netflix this week, so Action Network hosts Chad Millman and Simon Hunter invited a longtime friend of the show back to discuss it. Oscar-nominated screenwriter Will Fetters co-wrote and executive produced "Hustle," the story of a down-on-his-luck NBA scout chasing his dream. Together Will discusses what it was like writing the movie (described by Chad as "a love letter to Philadelphia"), working with Adam Sandler, and so much more. Later, they discuss their favorite gambling movies of all-time. #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The Favorites podcast is presented by Fandual Sportsbook. There's no better place to make every moment more than with Fandual. I bet with Fandual because they're safe and secure. They offer great odds and markets across the NBA, NHL, and more. And because it's fun to combine multiple bets into same game parlays. So if you're new, just download the Fandual Sportsbook app to get started now.

Sign up with promo code Favorites so they know I sent you. He must be 21 and over in present in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, or Louisiana, gambling problem. Call 1-800-next-net-next-step or text. Next step to 533342 in Arizona. 1-800-g or visit fanduel.com slash RG in Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, and Virginia, 1-888-78-9-777, or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut, 1-800-2707-1-1-7 for confidential help. Michigan, 1-877-770 S-T-O-P in Louisiana. Call the Tennessee Red Line 1-800-9-9-978-9 or visit 1-800-Gambler.net in West Virginia. Welcome to the favorites, the podcast from the Volume Podcast Network. I am Chad Noman, Chief Content Officer of the Action Network.

It's the middle of June, my BFF, my companion, my compadre, Simon Hunter, professional better from the fighting city of Philadelphia. What's going on, brother? Little hungover this morning, but I'm a trooper. I'm here after going to a concert last night. I'm here to talk about movies. Listen, we're combining a lot of themes today. You are a son of Philadelphia.

You love that city. I will be in Philadelphia tomorrow. You and I will be in Philadelphia together. I have come to love and appreciate Philadelphia in ways I had never before living in New York forever and going to Philadelphia for work and things like that. But now my kid's at Drexel and he's just spent the past year there. So I've been to Philly probably four or five times. Love going.

I think it's an amazing city. Have a blast there. Going to pick them up tomorrow or Saturday. It's going to be with you tomorrow night. It's a movie season. There is a new movie out called Hustle with Adam Sandler that was written and executive produced by very good friend of the podcast, Will Feders. Academy Award nominee for A Star is Born, which he wrote with Bradley Cooper.

Will came on the podcast a few years ago to talk about it, talk about the Academy Awards, all that kind of stuff. He worked on this movie hustle. He's going to fill us in on how the movie came together. We're going to talk to him about our favorite gambling movies. This podcast is meant to give you something to do in the summer months. You want to hang out watching some good movies. And it takes place in Philadelphia, Simon.

The city of love for you. Not even brotherly love, just the city of love. I mean, as a Philadelphia, we can say it's the city of freedom. It's the birthplace of American freedom. So every time someone talks shit about Philadelphia, I say, hey, you hate freedom, all right? 1776, brother. Where do you think that was done? Philadelphia freedom.

So, yeah, I loved that Will used Philadelphia as his backbone for this whole movie. I mean, the first scene, Adam Sandler is literally wearing a 76ers jumpsuit. And you know me, I was like, okay, I'm in. So, yeah, as a Philadelphia native, that was very big to my ego. Dude, Will is on, Will is on, Will is on podcast right now. Will Federer. My triumphant return. I'm doing good, man.

How are you guys doing? We're good. Thanks for coming on. We were talking about the movie. And there's a lot of stuff I want to get to. Yes, yes, I did write this movie just so you would have me back on the podcast. That is why I wrote it. I sought out the job.

I was like, how do I once again feel this glorious feeling of validation and come back on? And so two years later, here we are, brother. In two years, I do want, let's level set. Let me give the listeners some structure to this podcast. I mentioned before you jumped on that you had written a star was born with Bradley Cooper, nominated for an Academy Award. at that time your career was starting to explode. We are a couple years later.

And you're just jetting back from Philadelphia for the premiere of Hustle with Adam Salon, which you co-wrote and executive produced. And give us the rundown. What has been happening for the past two years? How does being nominated for an Academy Award accelerate your career? What changes? What is remarkably similar? You know, being a writer is kind of a funny thing.

We always have plausible deniability when movies don't work. And so, you know, I would say my career as far as, like, within the industry, people know I was pretty good at my job. There's a saying, like, nobody's ever made a good movie from a bad script, but plenty of people made bad movies from good scripts. So with the exception of one of my movies, like, the script every time I thought had a chance to be pretty good. And then, you know, they don't always come together.

I kind of like I would liken it to, I was trying to think of an analogy and it was like, like an NBA role player, like somebody that like, if you're a GM, you know, like, certain players are going to give you, give you what you need in the playoffs. Like, and those players tend to always end up on teams. Like, you could argue Milwaukee's not, we're not in the championship right now because they wouldn't pay PJ talk. So I feel like as far as within the business, the jobs I get didn't change. But I will say directly related to stars when I think is how I got pulled into this.

is like I've got a call from Adam Sandler's one of his agents because he as you can imagine as a team who used to be my agent and he was like, you like, you like basketball, right? I was like, I sure do. And I think, you know, if you've seen, you guys seen the movie, there's definitely some stars bornish parallels to it. So I think from a just fit wise, Adam would love the movie and then we met and talked and hit it off. And one of my first, one of my first like pitches was we need to change this to Philadelphia. So now we're here. let me also frame it. Adam Sandler plays a long-time NBA scout for the Sixers,

who's basically tasked with needing to find one last star that can help the Sixers become a championship level team. And it takes him around the world to find this one star played by NBA player Wancho Hernan Gomez, who he does. discovers on a playground in Spain. And then the movie takes off from there about him trying to get him back to the United States into the NBA. Why did you set it in Philadelphia?

Well, I don't know if you, I'm sure Simon knows this, but paying attention to the Sixers front office for the last few years. There was only one place that I could set it. No, I mean, I wanted to say in Philadelphia because I grew up a woman in Delaware. It's like the New York, New Jersey of, to New York is how it is for us in Delaware. we don't have much of the Philadelphia teams are it. That was 20 minutes from the stadiums growing up. So that's where I always went.

And I mean, I did think the character of the story, like knowing it was going to be about underdogs trying to grind and having to, you know, to get their shot, it just fit. And, you know, in Hollywood, you tend to have, like, like, Adam's, Adam was super cool about it. He loved the idea. But it ultimately does come down to, like, where's what's going to be the tax credit and, you know, things like that. And one funny thing is, I don't want to give anything away.

You guys will appreciate it because you're just. seen it, but I genuinely wrote the ending, you know, where there's, you know, certain team ends up prevailing over another team. And I had chosen, I'd say, you know what I'm talking about. I would say that that was something that I had written in. And it just, it worked out that Wancho was playing for that team at the time. So that was meant to be. So yeah, it was, it was just kind of, it just fit. And, you know, I knew a movie like this was going to need a real, the real character of a city behind it. You know, all due respect to L.A., but I just thought Philly fit.

And I just, one of my little things I love in movies is just little details of movies. And I just want to know if this is based on a true story. When he, when Adam Winsall Cruz playing, he was wearing the work shoes, like the construction shoes, is that based on anything real, like him playing in those Tim's? Because off my memories, I, I can tell you, I've seen guys in Philly, too, playing. in Timberlands, a steel-toed boots. I have to. I would love to know if that's like one of those things.

Is that inspiration from Philadelphia itself? Or is that a scout telling you a story about a guy he was checking out and saw him in those kind of shoes? No, much like you, I've actually seen that before. I've played in pickup, like going to a pickup court and seen a dude in Timberlands. And they're always the best player on the court. And it happened to work out that, you know, that the construction worker thing and having him, obviously, his Bo's life got off.

track at a certain point. And so, yeah, it just worked out. And also I have a good friend of him now. We always text with big NBA fans. And, you know, I remember describing Tony Allen in in the, we bet the gris, I think I actually did this on a podcast. One of the times I bet the gris to beat the Warriors. And it was the game, it was right before the game where Tony got left on an island to shoot Steve Kerr just isolated him and he couldn't make anything. But what you're describing Tony Allen is like, he's like the dude. And he's an NBA version of like the guy who shows up at the pickup court with like paint stained pants and like a bottle of gatorade that doesn't have gatorade in it and like clearly just got off work wearing boots and then just goes out

in the court and it destroys everyone for two hours like no one can do anything against them. It's just that there's a toughness to him. So yeah, that's definitely based off something I've really seen. It's funny you describe him that way. My kid and I, my kid who I watched the movie with last night, he's 15. He loved it. Totally predicted the ending. by the way.

Like as specifically the as at the end of the movie like I'm not going to give it away but Doc Rivers Adam Sandler they're walking out of the tunnel

for the Sixers and my son predicted what was going to happen next when they got onto the court 100% predicted it. But we always talk about like who are the NBA guys that you wouldn't they look terrible in the NBA but if you showed up at the YMCA in

Albany, New York, they're going to be playing and you're not going to know who they are and you're not going to know why is this person dominating for us you mentioned it was Tony Allen for us it was Denzel Valentine like we'd watch all the Bulls games Denzel Valentine would be nothing in the NBA but he had a really good career player of the year in Michigan State you would not think he could play and then he shows up at the Y and he's just crushing it. That's the equivalent. Totally get it.

The distance between, I think I'm going to credit the person who said this, I heard Brian Scalabrini say on some podcast interview because people like, because he's the classic guy that people talk shit, like they think they can beat him. And he said regarding all non-NBA players who play in the streetball games, he's like, you don't understand, guys. I am much closer to LeBron James than you. you are to me. And that is, every NBA guy is so far removed. Like this speed of the game, the mental side of the game, like the way that they, like, he defensively for him to survive

in the NBA, he had to be able to read and react. And so he figures, he'll figure you out after two, two times of you handling the ball. And then you never get by him again. Because as soon as you start to go right, he's already going, you know, and he's six, nine and two 60. So yeah, 100%. There's, there's literally nobody who plays in the NBA that they couldn't destroy on a pickup court. Well, Scaliborini, that ended up being a popular series, right? Where people would try to challenge him

and he would just destroy them. A lot of that was in the movie. So I mentioned Hernon Gomez, Wancho Hernan Gomez, who was great in the movie. He plays Bo Cruz, who was the guy that Adam Sandler discovers. And so first, I'm going to have two.

questions here, but the first question is, how did he end up in the movie? Man, he's, he was so incredible on his tape. So the funny thing about this, well, not funny, nothing's funny about the pandemic, but the way, the timing of it, which was kind of crazy. So I got the, I got the call from my old agent probably ended January 2020. And I met Adam within the week. And then Adam and I hit it off right away. We, we knew, because we had to start from page one. I mean, the movie was said, the other script was set in China. It was like a whole other thing. So we, Adam just loved the idea of playing a scout and he was in LeBron and Maverick were producing that script. So it's just a good fit. But we had a ton I had a ton of work to do.

I started from scratch changing everything for the city and all that stuff. And so he wanted to make it his summer movie. He didn't have a, and Adam's one of those dudes that just like always has to be working. Like he can't. It's just an incredibly productive person makes me feel lazy. But he, so I was like got the gig and then I wrote the entire thing. in like six weeks, like from like beginning of February. And obviously it's an NBA movie set in Europe. And I shoot you not. I sent the script to Adam.

And on that day, they closed Europe. And then I sent them the next day, at the time Netflix they read it, they closed the NBA. So that was inverted, one of those two things. And so everything stopped. And so that's kind of how we ended up with Wancho,

because we had a script that was basically greenlit. And I'd say 80% of what's on screen was probably in that draft, maybe 75. And then we were like, you know, incrementally working on it. And we got the director, Jeremiah, we did a fantastic job. And he comes on. And then they started looking for the guy. And so they had him put himself on tape.

And, yeah, we were on Zoom, like, you know, every day, all three of us. Me, Jeremiah and Adam just kind of going over stuff. And in that context, when Wancho's tape came through, Jeremiah, like, wanted me to look at it immediately because they just knew. He was, he's incredibly good in the movie. And it's funny. As great as his performance is, there's other stuff that's not in the movie that you, I mean, he's, he's really a tremendous actor. And everybody was trying to figure out, like, what's he going to do next? And he just, you know, he doesn't really want to do anything next.

He wants to be an NBA player. So I hope he'll do something someday. But also, I don't want to see him like randomly in a Marvel movie. So I'll take him just, I hope he, I hope he sticks to that. I did love in the movie, these are some technical questions, but a lot of the language was very, very natural, right? And sort of Sandler would have a line. He's married to Queen Latif in the movie. I thought their relationship was great. The way they interacted with each other, interacted with each other was fantastic. How many of those lines ended up being scripted?

And how many of those are Adam Sandler just sort of throwing something in off of various takes? A lot of them were scripted. I don't just say that. Like, there's definitely improv, but Adams is a really, really talented actor. And I will say this too from a meta standpoint. Like, the surreal thing for me was, I mean, the first movies I can remember seeing multiple times in the theater where like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, like I was 13 or 14 when they came out.

That run began for him. So as surreal and cool as it was with the stars born to, you know, see Lady Gaga, you know, stopping the movie with their voice and working with Bradley and then watching that translate onto the screen. I mean, like, I didn't grow up watching Bradley Cooper. Like, I grew up, my sense of humor, everything's influenced by him. So writing dialogue for him was very natural. And it was one of those things where also, the more times you refine the script, you know,

there's like, you just find stuff. And so, you know, you add lines get added in as you go. There's always the point where you got to shrink the production down. And so, yeah, there was stuff that I think that they definitely improv. And like there's a couple lines. Like, I think one, one, they definitely was improv. like Adam did the like the whole

the whole porno thing the porn edition they was scripted but Bo improvised to like or watchto improvise the it wasn't me and then Adam responded

so like there are a couple spots like that but you'd be surprised more than not and I would tell you if it wasn't there's a lot that is scripted and there's definitely you know they're just they're both tremendous actors

and that's everybody in the movie's great Ben Foster's fantastic and just he's such a good actor to take everything and turn it into just it's supposed to sound like it's not scripted, you know? Yeah, I'm so glad you mentioned Ben Foster because, again, I'm

one of the few people that I actually really, really like Ben Foster, even though most movie he plays, he plays this kind of character, the kind of person you don't really like. And it might have been Pandorum. That was like one of the movies I can think of with him. He was the lead star. Not many people have seen it, but it's a good, good sci-fi movie.

But Anthony Edwards, man, to me, that really jumped off in this movie where shit-talking was really amazing because it's just, not that I'm saying you guys went to him and said, hey, do what you do on the court. Well, you can tell that was not natural to him, but he's that cocky, really good athlete.

You can tell he came from, not the streets, but he grew up playing street basketball. Like, that's how they work yet, right? These guys, they try to break you down mentally, take you off your game. I love that. The first time they played against each other, I love that whole thing where, you know,

Cruz comes down, he hits a three, and he's feeling like he's in a rhythm. And right there, Anthony Edwards, keeps going. He keeps getting his head. It was just kind of cool that whole evolution of that part. Because we talk all the time. I mean, Chad, people don't get how much of sports is mental. Like all these guys have the talent.

They have the skills. It's the mental stuff. That's what makes Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan, LeBron, LeBron. So I would love to hear how you guys worked with Anthony Edwards. Because to me, I thought he was the best actor of all the athletes. He was incredible. He really, he really, well, he didn't watch them knew each other. So he ended up in the movie because they played on the Timber Wolves together,

Wancho recommended him. And then I love him as a player. I love everything about it, which he's just everything. He's a great basketball player, great personality. It seems like a guy that you just can't help or move for. So then when he came on,

and this is a testament to like, and again, I would tell you if it wasn't scripted, all that stuff was scripted except for when he says, that shit's whack. That's the only thing I didn't write. Everything else was him just taking what was on the page and then making it his own. And you're absolutely right, Simon.

That was, I'd say, there's always, there's always moments on every, as a screenwriter especially where you're trying to figure out, like, what's going to drive the second act? Like, what is going to be the obstacle? So, like, in the Starzborn, it was like, the pop music, her getting sucked into the system. And, like, that was going to be the thing that was going to kind of be the, like, so Bowne needed something to overcome. And, like, you couldn't just be, you know, he just needs to train harder. There had to be something he actually had to try to get over.

And, and, yeah, again, being a huge NBA fan, it is. It's everything. I mean, honestly, if I play, like, if I'm playing horse in my backyard with my, like, my wife and I will play, if she makes a shot from 12 feet, the feeling of trying to hit that shot knowing I have to hit it, you know, it just, it changes the feeling. I could stand there and hit from like a free throw for the most part without, not to be I'm very good, I'm terrible, but like, you know what I mean? If there's nobody in front of me. So it's like, I can only imagine what that feels like when you're moving at the speed these guys move at. And, and it's, it's all mental. I mean, Steph Curry, you know, watching him when he was in his, and he's still on his prime, but that those, those, I always remember that Oklahoma City game where he, he won it from half court. So he said 12 threes in that game. That's not just skill. That's like he's in the last dance.

They described Michael Jordan the last episode, they say, that's the key, with Keith, see her with Michael as he was a mystic. He was always in the moment. He never expected to miss. He never expected to do anything but make it. And he's the greatest player of all time. And I think that that's everything. So, yeah, it was a natural fit for his, for Bose.

kind of character art. And I got to do that fun bit with Adam making fun of it, which I really enjoy. It was that I thought the athletes overall in the movie were fantastic. Kenny Smith, who was in the movie, not even playing Kenny Smith, was ridiculously good. How much, how much in this is coaching? How many times did you have to say to him, okay, or the director is saying them, do it differently? Like, were they comfortable immediately? How do you even know? I'm asking you eight questions here. Can you do that? Well, two things. So a lot of, a ton of credit for that goes to Jeremiah, the director, all the credit for the, that, but I also have to give credit to Adam as a producer. Because when after, when we first were trying to find director, because remember, first we're

trying to get it for summer. So they went out really quickly. And Jeremiah's first movie is called We the Animals. And he, what I, two things you'll notice about if you're watching, it's like, it's visually very interesting. It's a low budget movie. He did a ton with the camera that really, It's visceral and you just knew he knew he had a great eye. The other thing, though, is he worked with non-actors. So Adam knew as a producer, and he doesn't get nearly enough credit. Like, he is, he was the key producer of the movie beyond being the star and the driving force. Like, that decision was huge.

And so every, every NBA player, we had a director who knew how to get those natural moments, but I'll tell you specifically about Kenny because I met Kenny at the premiere. I saw him in Philly. And I mean, I'll probably never, I said the last time, so I'll probably never see you again my life. This is really cool for me because I'll watch you. like every night for all of the spring. He said, the other thing I think is the way these guys are wired. So this is just what Kenny told me.

When he, he read the script and Adam had called him to just say, he wanted him to do it. And Kenny had played like himself in cameos, but he'd never done like a real acting thing. So he said, I need 24 hours. He and he just like thought about it because once he decided to do it, he was going to, he took, he did the acting coach every day for a month. He just worked like two, three hours a day.

to become the actor. So his pro athlete work ethic kicked in. And once he decided to do it, he's going to do it great. So I think a lot of these guys, you know, some of that is just like, you know, you're going to do something. You're not going to just mail it in. You're going to do it really well.

So in that combination of that with the director who really knows how to get those natural moments, yeah, it really worked out. And that's the coolest feeling, man. Like you can't be in a writer, you just control so little. You know, again, it's like being a role player. You can be an amazing role player. If you're not on a team with Janus, if you're not on a team with Steph and Draymond or Tatum, like there's, you need the guy to get you there.

But there's a, it's an amazing feeling when it does. And also, you know, we play an important role, but it's just the movie is so much out of our hands. Well, you mentioned the most important word to me, which was this movie was really natural and seamless. It didn't go for anything cheap. Like Adam Sandler's lines felt completely reactive and in the moment. You know, he and Kenny Smith are sitting around a pool in Spain and there's beautiful women all over and they're all topless. And Kenny Smith is trying to get Adam Sandler to turn around.

And Adam Sandler's like, if I turn around, my wife is going to kill me. And finally he gets him to do it. And they're staring at two. There's a payoff. dudes, right? Or there was even a moment where Adam Sandler is sitting at his kitchen table in a really powerful, stressful moment

towards the end of the movie, and he's texting something, and his daughter is trying to say something to him, which ultimately turns out to be something incredibly important, but he's just sort of shushing her the whole time. And anyone who has kids who is trying to sort of manage something

stressful while their kids are talking to them has said that line a thousand times, but the way he said and the way it was delivered just felt like he was a dude who was a dad talking to his daughter. It just like everything about the movie actually felt really sort of totally perfect. Good job, Will Fetters. That's a tough thing to do.

I'll say one last thing about that because that again goes to the, you know, there's a script element to it, but that was something to be able to walk the line and tone between like, you know, a drama that that's going to try to get you to cry in certain spots. but then also to be able to have a scene like the one you just, the Kenny Smith and Adam's scene at the pool, like Adam's superpower is that he is kind of like a regular guy. He's very smart and he's incredibly talented, but he really is like one of the most regular guys that everybody says this about it.

And I know I'm on enough to say that from personal experience, but there that the line between the movie being funny and having like actual, like the opening scene with Beaumont. Like, it's a scripted scene that's like, it's funny. It's meant to kind of, it's got a silliness. And I, we've been compared favorably by a few people to Jerry McGuire. And I'm rewatching Jeremy Dwyer. That is, that movie has that too, where it's like, it could have been cheesy.

It could have been corny. The kid could have really made it seem weird. But those scenes, because Tom's so good in the movie, just kind of work. Like, you know, it's a, you feel like it's a movie. And then, but at the same time, it doesn't lose the audience to where you just, you still say sucked in. So, yeah. The NBA Finals are here, and so is your chance to score big on Fanduals Sportsbook throughout the NBA Finals. Fan Duels, Fandul is giving you customers $200 in free bets, guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet.

Bet the money line, point spreads, player props, and so much more. Plus, you can combine your bets for an even bigger payday with the same game parlay. But for me, my favorite bet for the NBA Finals is still Steph Curry to win Finals MVP. Just sign up with promo code favorites if you haven't tried Fanduel. Now is the perfect time to give it a shot because the only thing sweeter than watching the finals is cashing in on all the action. Join today with promo code favorites and turn a $5 bet into $200 in free bets. Win or lose. Make every game feel like game seven with Fandual Sportsbook.

Fanduel, official partner of the NBA. You must be 21 or older and in select states. First online real money wager of at least $5. $10 first deposit required. bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expires 14 days after receiving. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 Next-N-800 Next Step to 533442 in Arizona. 1-800 gambler or visit fanduel.com slash RG in Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, and Virginia,

1-888-789-7777, or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut, 1-800-2707-117 for confidential help. Michigan, call the Tennessee Red Line 1-800-9-9-9-7-8-9 or visit 1-800-gambler.net in West Virginia. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all,

embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I was going to say, not that I'm pitching Adam Senator's next movie, but... Oh, by all means.

He's done football. He's done basketball. I mean, he's done these movies. People forget, I'll never forget, Big Daddy. He had a scene where he's hitting baseballs at his adopted kid. Ad has a naturally good baseball swing. I don't know if he played it growing up, but to me, that's the next thing.

thing. Adam needs to do a baseball movie. It's like, you can tell, again, he's a hooper. I've seen these photos of him always going around shooting hoops. I bet you Adam's a baseball player. Like, again, his stance, the way he swung the bat, I have no doubt Adam wants to do a baseball movie. You can just tell he's naturally a baseball player. So I would love to hear. This is what makes you a sharp. This is what makes you a pro. You'll notice those little details. You pick it up from the swing and Big Daddy. That you're 100% right. That is his best sport. It is the sport that he, and we talked about this at dinner two nights. And it was like that, yeah, because one of my favorite movies is Bull Durham.

And I, and it just, like, Adam in a role, like, Crash Dave, like, he would just crush. And so it's definitely something that I don't have yet, but it's something that I think if I could find the right way in. I think I'd love to find him, like, or a league of their own, like, a movie that just he gets to play, like, he could play the manager, I think, at this point. You know, he was talking about that, too, how it's like, you know, everybody, we all get, except chat, that looks very good for, I imagine you're older than 35, but I feel like once I hit 40, I just turned 40 last year and it's like the bags under my eyes get, get heavier and, you know, just trying to hold onto the hair on my head.

And Adam, you're, the joints start to hurt. And it's like, oh, man, this is crazy. And Adam, right, he's in his 50s. So he held on a little longer. But, yeah, it's, I think he's actually being a player. Maybe we're past that, but he could be a great manager. Number one, everyone knows that Jews from New Hampshire, great assets.

It's like undiscovered of athletic talent. Everyone knows, yeah, I am older than both of you fuckers. I stopped playing basketball at 40 when I, in the span of six months,

tore my labrum, broke a rib, and shredded a finger and decided that's it. I'm done. I feel like I would want to have a all-day movie fest with Will Simon

because Bull Durham's one of my favorite movies. I felt like, and it's hard to thread the needle on sports movies. And now there's two great Philadelphia sports movies. Invincible, the Vince Papali story, which, what's that? I was just say, you're really going to forget about Rocky. You're going to forget Rocky. I wasn't going to forget Rocky.

So we're not in it? So it's invincible and rocky. Invincible? I said three. Invincible. I said too. Rocky. And now hustle.

Three great Philadelphia. I love Invincible too, chat. We should. We'll do a movie thing sometime. I really do. It was a movie that I remember seeing it in the theater and being like, damn, I really actually am enjoying this. And I knew part of this probably because like I'm from Philly and grew up going to that

stadium. Well, I'm from Philly area. I'm not from Philly. God forbid. I don't want to claim, you know, heritage I don't have. But that's a weird thing being from women than Delaware. It's like, Jeremiah was born in South Philly. And Jeremiah, like, authentic.

His dad, an artist designed to the gardens. There's some art in there that his dad is, he is like super authentic. But he did grow up in the city. When you're outside the city, it's like, it's like, it's your city, but I'm not from the city. You know what I mean? So I didn't get to like the favored son treatment, but I did get to like, well, he's the reason the movie's here. So it gets that. Well, as the person who wrote the book Invincible,

well, really, that's all I wanted to say is that I wrote the book Invincible. Did you really? How do I know that? Yeah, yeah. It's one of my seven books. It was, I did it with Vince Pappali, who's one of the classiest guys in the world, love the guy to death, pure joy, pure optimism, pure happiness. I would drive at the time I was living in Montclair, New Jersey. He was in Cherry Hill. I would drive down from Montclair, 90 minutes down the turnpike to Cherry Hill.

And I'd sit in his basement and I'd turn on my recorder and he would just start talking. He would tell the greatest stories in the world. So many stories that couldn't even end up in the book. And at one point, it was right when my second kid was born. So I was exhausted. And there was one day where I started to fall asleep. while I was recording him in his basement. And I sort of knotted off.

Like, you know how when you're in class sometimes you'll nod off and jerk your head up? So I did that. And he looks at me, he goes, you don't worry about it, brother. I can just keep talking. And it was just like, it was the best. Great, man. It was the total best. He was the best.

If we were to have a movie fest day, I would do Invincible. I would do Bull Durham. I would do Cougars. I would do Moneyball, which I feel like you had a scene in Hustle that was a little bit of an homage to Moneyball when everyone's sitting around the table in the beginning talking about players and stuff. And my kid actually asked me, he wanted to know from you, was that sort of a, was that inspired by the scene in Moneyball? It wasn't the sense that that's how teams really work. So, I mean, obviously, I thought about it, but it wasn't specifically like, honestly, the scene of Moneyball, I feel like plays a little more even like, like,

the thing I was talking about, the line you walk between like movie scene and, and just being like delivering the information. I love that scene because, you know, Brad keeps pointing to Jonah, like, you know, he gets on base. That's what I mean by it's like, it's like, it's got a rhythm and there's like, there's kind of a running joke. But Aaron Sorkman is great, right? I think Steve Zellian wrote that with him too. But anyway, this one was more, it was, it was definitely.

that's conscious of that. But when I, so my first pass, I knew, I knew that we had this whole construct within the team. The 76ers were super cool. And once they, like, kind of gave us permission to use, you know, they just got involved. They jumped in with both feet. And Del Demps was our technical advisor. And I spoke to Del Demps, like, pretty much right away. So off my first draft, he and I started talking about, like, what that scene would really sound like.

And then the deeper we got into the movie, you know, like there was stuff, even during production, And, you know, they make little changes during the productions. There are even any line that was on there that wasn't like exactly what somebody would say, you know, Kep was changed what somebody would say. So that is very much, it's meant to be authentic. And that's how they really do it, man, and sit around and they argue about it. So I found something to like Sacramento Kings draft room, which not the one you necessarily want to model. But that's what they, you know, sit around and you argue about who to take and why. Del Dems, by the way, former player, current coach.

So here's my question. Here's my question for you, Will, first, then Simon. If we're having a movie day, I've given some movies, but there's one I'm holding out on. I want to know what is the betting movie that you would add to our movie day festival lineup? The tough thing here is that I feel like both of the two things that came to my mind are like kind of Homer picks. but like so uncut gems is such a fantastic gambling movie as far as just like the energy how it typically ends for most gamblers metaphorically and then Silver Linney's playbook which is another one which I thought they just did such a good job of weaving the the gambling part

of the story that was really a hard line to walk and I mean David O Russell is incredible at that but like to make kind of like an ending that's very it could have been really cheap to have like the dance and the parlay, but like it just plays. Those two would be on and then I'm going to give you three. And I also, I love trying to think of one outside the box. And Michael Clayton where he is a, he is a gambling problem. And it's kind of the backstory. And he plays cards in the movies that technically counts.

And I just absolutely love that movie. It kind of got, it came out the year of, it's like when, you know, any team that ran into Michael Jordan's bulls, like you weren't going to win the finals. So Michael Clayton came out and was the Oscars the same year as No Country for Old Men and there will be blood. Yeah. And I just love that movie and it just kind of got, so that would be on my list

probably. There's a couple other obvious ones. I'll give Simon, what would you say? My number one's easy. It's Rounders. I watch Rounders so many times I burnt the VHS tape. I was obsessed with Rounders. Three stacks of high society. Don't splash the pot. I mean, all of it.

I again, this was when I was young, and World Series of Poker was really big in the early 2000, 2001. Like Chris Moneymaker was just a big deal. And I'll just never forget where it was like, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I just want to play poker and kind of be a card counter like these guys. And as I got older, I was like, okay, now I really understand the movie. These guys were miserable as hell,

behind and trying to get to this lifestyle. So for me, Gambler, I can't get around how big what part of my life rounders was because it was just not the, it's authentic, but it really shows you what it's like. Like you're going to have these huge risk. You need to go for it. And you might end up being a UPS man the rest of your life. Like there's just really a lot of risk in this gambling world.

I thought rounders, you know, it really broke that down in a sense that, you know, I love Adam Sandler, but most most professional betters aren't doing a 13 team parlay to get their money back at the end of a thing. It's like, it's more like rounders where it's like, okay, I'm going for. I got to beat this one guy to get. the money to go do this next step of my life. So, you know, it's always, it's always interesting. We've seen movies progress now with gambling, because what's the number one thing? At the end of a gambling movie, they want to remind you, gambling's bad. You don't want to be doing this. So I thought that was kind of cool in rounders where they didn't really have to do that. They showed

kind of the other side of it where it's like you can swim through all the slush, all the shit, all the mud, and you can make out of the other side. So yeah, for me, for my favorite gambling movie, it was definitely always going to be rounders. So that's a good one, man. That's a really. I mean, that insight on it. It is a really good one. Rounders is great. It's funny, Will, no joke. In the past two weeks, I've watched Michael Clayton and Silver Linings Playbook.

Silver Linings Playbook, I had forgotten how good it was. So good. Jennifer Lawrence, she won an Academy Award for that. Bradley Cooper was in that. They were amazing together. The way they kept saying a parlay was really funny. and like the way Diderot put the, where they put the accent on it

and how they talked about it. But the sweatshirt, people can't see it necessarily, but Simon is wearing an old school Eagle sweatshirt. And that is like so silver linings playbook. Love both of those movies. Uncut gems,

that was going to be my first choice. And it's such a controversial gambling movie. Some people just absolutely hate it. I loved it. I thought it was amazing, loved everything about it. and but we've had people on the podcast you just cannot stand that movie.

And I don't know why. I thought it was, I thought it was amazing. I thought Sandler was great in it. Yeah, I think maybe they genuinely don't like the way it made them feel. Like you, people,

it's not necessarily an enjoyable experience, but the movie's incredible to make you feel that way. Yeah, it's the anxiety you feel through that whole movie with his character is, that's an all-time robbery, him not getting nominated for that. That was,

I mean, I was saying you should have won, but that was, so far and away one of the best performances of the year. And given everything else he's done, I would have expected it. But yeah, Uncle Jems is up there. The gambler, I think, also has to be, right?

Yeah, I mean, the gambler, but it almost feels cliche. And also, it's so fucking old now. Like, it's as old as I am, right? And so, and that is a dark early 70s, like, almost noirish, almost too realistic look at the life of a sports better and the life of a gambler. I think we got our line up set. We got a rounders.

We got uncut gems. We got silver linings. We got Michael Clayton. The only one I would add is 21, which was based on the book bringing down the house, written by Alan Loeb, who is another screenwriter who's been on the podcast a lot. Amazing translation to the book. And I just really like the movie. It was fun. It was candy.

It was popcorny. Like it just sort of, it was sexy. I think it's a good one. I'll add two just because I think you got to. put Rain Man. We can just extend the day. We'll go into the night. Yeah, I will put Rain Man.

And then the only other one, I thought about this. And I think it, well, so it's a sports movie. And I think it absolutely is a gambling movie because of the eight men out. Field of Dreams. Field of Dreams, he, what he's effectively doing is gambling. And it's like, you can make that parallel for it. It is a reach in some sense. But he very much financially bets everything on something that he feels is going to pay off

without with no rational reason. And I think that I actually really thought it was interesting what Sonio said about watching Rounders and then to become because I think about the scene and what you'll know when he's with Martin Landau. And he talks about how they wanted him to become a rabbi, his parents. And then he went into to law. And he was just, that's what he was called to do that.

And I think that I never really thought about it from that perspective because obviously not a professional gambler. That that does show you that this is like, it's okay to want to do this. Like it's not, it doesn't, it's not all for degenerates. It's like, it can be a living.

And it's, and it's like, it's math, you know? So I, I think it's cool that that, that played a role in your origin story.

Let's not compliment Simon. All right, I won't, we don't, we don't compliment Simon either. We don't, we get so much love as it is. I do want to compliment.

I saw a really, I saw a really funny video on Twitter. I rarely am on Twitter, but somehow, I saw one of you, somebody cut together, you like turning, changing your pick because that was so funny, dude. That was great. Just like the different, like you couldn't have scripted it better, like the different,

your tone of voice. And it's like you're saying the same thing just in different ways. Like, all right, well, maybe that's so good. It was like Tommy Boy when he's like blowing the sails. Gotcha, thanks. Listen, I can go any direction. I go with the wind. That's how I've made it.

That's what I've gotten by in my career. I do the exact same thing if I was in your chair. Oh, the professional ones go out with you? Yeah, I can see that. I can totally see that. Will Feders, executive producer, writer for hustle. The movie's amazing. Everyone go download or watch it on Netflix.

Adam Sandler stars in it. Love the movie. Love the work you're doing. Congrats on all the success. Thanks for coming on. The Favorites podcast. We'll get ready for our own movie festival for Simon Hunter, for Matt Mitchell. I am Chad Milman. This has been the favorites podcast download from Apple Podcasts from Spotify,

wherever you get your podcasts. Rate, review, subscribe, five stars, say whatever you want. Feedback is a gift. Until next time, love you. Take care. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band, with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.