Hustle, which will begin streaming on Netflix on June 8, premiered at Westwood’s Regency Village Theatre on Wednesday night where Adam Sandler, LeBron James and Queen Latifah were met with deafening cheers from hundreds of fans who lined the streets.
According to Variety, James produced the Jeremiah Zagar-directed Netflix sports drama which stars Sandler as Stanley “Sugerman” Beren, a washed-up basketball scout who sees a chance for a career comeback when he discovers a phenomenally talented street ball player in Spain.
Spanish professional basketball player and Utah Jazz power forward Juancho Hernangomez made his acting debut in the film, taking on the role of Beren’s protégée, Bo Cruz. The cast also featured numerous past and current NBA stars including Kenny Smith, Trae Young, Kyle Lowry, Anthony Edwards and Seth Curry, among others.
A basketball superfan, Sandler had previously teamed up with NBA legend Kevin Garnett in the 2019 crime thriller Uncut Gems. When asked if “Hustle” was just an excuse for Sandler to work with more of his favorite players, he told Variety, “It was a lucky thing. They sent me the script and it was something that I knew I would be excited to come to work every day doing.”
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Hustle is a basketball movie, and a Philly movie — but it’s also a music movie.
In Hustle, the outlet adds, the story of Sandler’s Stanley Sugerman and Hernangomez’ Bo Cruz is told with a two-pronged musical approach.
It has a score by Dan Deacon, the Baltimore electronic musician known for high-energy crowd participation concerts in which he manipulates beats while encircled by fans on the dance floor.
Deacon’s sometimes moody, sometimes frenetic compositions for the movie, recorded with the London Contemporary Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra, have been released on streaming services under the title Hustle (Soundtrack from the Netflix Film).
But besides Deacon’s ambient soundtrack, Hustle has another one that – along with a few outliers such as the Miles Davis Quintet’s 1955 recording of Rogers & Hart’s “It Never Entered My Mind” – is made up of hip-hop songs, many of those by Philadelphia artists, recorded over the past few decades.
Hustle is just the latest entry in Sandler’s ongoing extensive partnership with Netflix, for which he’s already produced films like Murder Mystery and Hubie Halloween.
Sandler and Jennifer Aniston will also be returning to the platform for a sequel to Murder Mystery, with Jeremy Garelick tapped to direct.
