Adam Sandler has increasingly been mixing drama alongside his usual comedy output, and from the looks of Spaceman, he's venturing into territory normally seen in the work of Christopher Nolan or something from the 1970s. The first, very short teaser for the film is online, and you can find it below.
Directed by Johan Renck from a script by Colby Day (itself adapted from Jaroslav Kalfar's book Spaceman Of Bohemia), the film's narrative finds Sandler as Czech astronaut Jakub. Six months into a solitary research mission to the edge of the solar system, he realizes that the marriage he left behind might not be waiting for him when he returns to Earth.
Desperate to fix things with his wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan), he is helped by a mysterious creature from the beginning of time he finds hiding in the bowels of his ship. Hanuš (voiced by Paul Dano) works with Jakub to make sense of what went wrong before it is too late.
"I really wanted to have a performance from him that had nothing to do with the Adam Sandler we all know," Renck tells Netflix's TUDUM blog. "I don’t think people understand how [although] he may come across as funny and sweet and all that, he’s very intelligent, really smart, profound."
With Kunal Nayyar, Lena Olin and Isabella Rossellini also in the cast, Spaceman will be on Netflix on 1 March.