Sequels to popular films often get big changes in their titles — whether it’s a fancy colon and a subtitle (“Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”), a few additional words (“A Good Day To Die Hard”) or just a new noun (“Monster’s University). But Adam Sandler said when naming their latest film, they just tacked on a 2 to get “Grown Ups 2” because of some remarkably simple logic.
“It was the easiest to spell,” Sandler told MTV News’ Josh Horowitz. Sandler also revealed that it was one of his longtime colleagues who came up with “Grown Ups,” after they struggled to find a name for the original movie. “Colin Quinn came up with the title for ‘Grown Ups.’ He sure did — we didn’t know what to call it. In the beginning it was just called ‘The Lake Movie.’ “
David Spade, who co-starred in both films with Sandler, said that he had an alternate suggestion he thought would have been good. “My idea was Spade and friends,” he said. But Sandler explained that they jettisoned that idea: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, But it didn’t test well,” Sandler said.
Horowitz asked castmembers Sandler, Spade, Kevin James and Salma Hayek what were the ingredients of a good sequel. James’ answer was surprising: “Butter,” he said. “Cocoa.”
“Those are [his] ingredients for everything,” Hayek joked.
Spade, meanwhile, observed that the key to a good sequel is the sense that the people making it committed an equal if not greater effort to its construction than the original. “I think in a good sequel, you shake it up a little bit, make sure people don’t think you walked through it,” Spade said. “We wanted to make sure we tried extra. Some sequels in the past I’ve seen, I thought that.”
James, meanwhile, didn’t mince words about the new film. “I’m saying this is better than the first.”
Sandler agreed: “It’s a cool story, cool time.”
“Grown Ups 2” opens in theaters nationwide July 12.
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