Sandler, Barrymore "Blended" Again After Ten Years

Nearly ten years after Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore’s second hugely successful romantic comedy, “50 First Dates,” the two reunite on the big screen with Warner Bros. Pictures new romantic comedy “Blended.”

Written by Ivan Menchell & Clare Sera, “Blended” tells the story of Lauren (Barrymore), an over-protective, recently divorced mother of tween boys thrown into an unexpected African adventure with Jim (Sandler), a loving but overwhelmed widower doing his misguided best to raise three daughters.

The screenplay came to Sandler courtesy of producer Mike Karz, who slipped the script to the actor after a weekend camping trip with their kids. “I saw him playing with his daughter during one of the camping activities,” Karz recalls, “and it just hit me: Adam reminds me of Jim. Like Jim, Adam is such a loving and caring father. His family is the most important thing in his life and he would do anything for his kids.”

“A big part of why Jim and Lauren fall in love is their ability to see what great parents they are to their kids and to each other’s kids,” says director Frank Coraci. “That’s what sets this movie apart. They don’t fall in love over the typical romantic comedy clichés. They fall in love over how devoted they are to their kids.”

As Barrymore sees it, “Jim and Lauren are just trying to do the best they can for their kids. When they’re forced to spend time together in this exotic place, they begin to discover how great life can be when you meet someone who is a like-minded parent and shares the same core values.”

Coraci believes the timing of Sandler and Barrymore’s reunion couldn’t be better. “The Wedding Singer was a very pure, un-jaded first love kind of movie that we made when we were younger and more naïve,” he muses. “Now that Adam and Drew have kids, and he’s become an amazing dad and she’s become an amazing mother, they really understand what it is to love your kids unconditionally and be a great parent, and the sacrifices that have to sometimes be made. So their experience was really appropriate for `Blended.' They haven’t lost their ability to have fun and poke fun at each other, but they definitely brought that new wisdom to their roles.”

“Blended” also stars Joel McHale (NBC’s “Community”) as Lauren’s ex-husband, Mark, and Wendi McLendon-Covey (“Bridesmaids”) as her best friend, Jen; Kevin Nealon (“Weeds”) and Jessica Lowe (funnyordie’s “RobotDown”) as an overly romantic couple also vacationing at the resort; and Terry Crews (“The Expendables 2”) as the resort’s singing host.

Opening across the Philippines on June 11, “Blended” is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation of a Gulfstream Pictures/Happy Madison Production and will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company.

“BLENDED” Rolls Out Wacky Teaser Posters

The teaser posters for Warner Bros. Pictures' new romantic comedy “Blended” starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore are now out. The humor-filled one-sheets individually feature Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore in acts of wackiness.

His has the tagline “Single Dad, No Clue”

while hers “Single Mom, Flying Solo”

“Blended” marks the third comedy collaboration between Sandler and Barrymore, following their successful onscreen pairings in the hit romantic comedies “50 First Dates” and “The Wedding Singer.”

In the film, after a disastrous blind date, single parents Lauren (Barrymore) and Jim (Sandler) agree on only one thing: they never want to see each other again. But when they each sign up separately for a fabulous family vacation with their kids, they are all stuck sharing a suite at a luxurious African safari resort for a week.
“Blended” also stars Joel McHale (NBC’s “Community”) as Lauren’s ex-husband, Mark, and Wendi McLendon-Covey (“Bridesmaids”) as her best friend, Jen; Kevin Nealon (“Weeds”) and Jessica Lowe (funnyordie’s “RobotDown”) as an overly romantic couple also vacationing at the resort; and Terry Crews (“The Expendables 2”) as the resort’s singing host.

Opening across the Philippines on June 11, 2014, “Blended” is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation of a Gulfstream Pictures/Happy Madison Production and will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company.

DREW BARRYMORE Plays RACHEL IN KEN KWAPIS’ BIG MIRACLE

Drew Barrymore embodies versatility, having added to her status as one of the film business’ most popular leading ladies by becoming a successful producer and director.

In her new movie Big Miracle she plays Greenpeace activist Rachel Kramer. Rachel is what you would call an extremist. She will go to any lengths to stop big oil companies from harming the environment, including showing up uninvited at meetings with a bull horn. When Rachel (reporter Adam's ex-girlfriend) finds out about a family of trapped gray whales, she turns all of her attention to getting them freed.

Born in Culver City, California, into a revered family of actors that includes, among many others, her grandfather John Barrymore and grand-uncle Lionel Barrymore, she started performing in commercials before her first birthday. At age six, she was chosen by director (and godfather) Steven Spielberg to co-star as Gertie in his (at the time) small-scale feature E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Once the film was released to overall acclaim in 1982, the young actress had instantly become a movie star.

As a longtime animal and human rights activist, she is devoted to such causes as the United Nations World Food Program (for which she was chosen to serve as an Ambassador Against Hunger) and the ASPCA, among many others.

John Krasinski plays “ADAM” in Ken Kwapis’ Big Miracle

John Krasinski, best known to American audiences as Jim Halpert on the hit television show The Office. In Universal’ Pictures ‘Big Mircle he plays Adam Carlson a television reporter who lived in the city at that time, but as an amalgam of small-town news people who served to tell the human elements of the story.

Even though signing on would mean multiple trips between the set of his television series and Anchorage, Krasinski believed it was worth it to work again with director Ken Kwapis. The filmmaker had directed him in License to Wed, as well as many pivotal episodes of The Office. “Ken is a phenomenal person,” commends Krasinski. “He did the pilot of our show and many of the important episodes, including the first time I said ‘I love you’ to Pam. He’s been there emotionally in a lot of stages of my life as an actor, as well as a person growing up in front of the camera. He has that rare gift to be not only in tune with you but also with the whole movie.”

The producers were pleased to bring him onto the production as a character who would discover the story and be at the center of the story’s romantic triangle.

When Barrymore heard that Krasinski was a candidate to play Adam, she advocated bringing him onto Big Miracle. “I remember calling Ken from the San Francisco airport,” she says. “I was screaming down the hallway that I’d do anything to do this movie with him. He was perfect for the role, as he is wholesome, funny and a good guy, just like Adam. Even though the film is rooted in the environmental and political aspects of the whale rescue, there is also a love triangle that had to work among me.”

BIG MIRACLE - Everybody Loves Whales

Based on the inspiring true story that captured the hearts of people across the world, the rescue adventure Everybody Loves Whales tells the amazing tale of a small town news reporter (John Krasinski) and a Greenpeace volunteer (Drew Barrymore) who are joined by rival world superpowers to save a family of majestic gray whales trapped by rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle.

Local newsman Adam Carlson (Krasinski) can’t wait to escape the northern tip of Alaska for a bigger market. But just when the story of his career breaks, the world comes chasing it, too. With an oil tycoon, heads of state and hungry journalists descending upon the frigid outpost, the one who worries Adam the most is Rachel Kramer (Barrymore). Not only is she an outspoken environmentalist, she’s also his ex-girlfriend.

With time running out, Rachel and Adam must rally an unlikely coalition of Inuit natives, oil companies and Russian and American military to set aside their differences and free the whales. As the world’s attention turns to the top of the globe, saving these endangered animals becomes a shared cause for nations entrenched against one another and leads to a momentary thaw in the Cold War.

“Big Miracle” is released and distributed by United International Pictures through Solar Entertainment Corporation. Showing on May 2, 2012