Acclaimed filmmaker Benny Safdie, who, along with his brother, Josh, directed Adam Sandler in the hit crime thriller Uncut Gems, won’t be reuniting with the duo on their upcoming Netflix movie. Benny, who will next be seen on screen as an actor in writer-helmer Christopher Nolan’s anticipated biographical thriller, Oppenheimer, shared the news during an interview with GQ.
As a result, Josh will be directing the upcoming movie for the streamer, which is set in the world of sports memorabilia collectors, on his own. The film, which doesn’t currently have a release date, will mark the first time that the Safdies Brothers aren’t co-scribing and helming a project together.
The currently-untitled sports movie is set to be released under Sandler’s production deal with the streamer. Besides the actor, who won the Best Male Lead Independent Spirit Award for Uncut Gems in 2020, the upcoming film will also star Megan Thee Stallion.
While Benny is unable to reunite with his brother to pen and direct the upcoming Netflix movie, he reassured their fans during his interview with GQ that they’re still collaborating together on other project. His decision is due to his desire to pursue acting and to also allow his brother to also work on his own individual interests. The brothers’ production company, Elara Pictures, is still involved in the film, however.
“We work on a lot of documentaries and there’s just a constant flow of ideas. It just felt like, OK, there’s things that I want to explore that don’t necessarily align right now with Josh,” Benny shared.
“So it’s a divide and conquer mentality. He wants to tell this story, he can go and do that. I’m going to go and do a couple of other things. It seems like a natural progression for how things have happened,” the actor-filmmaker continued.
“It was just a matter of, ‘This works for me right now and this is what I’ve got to do,'” Benny added.
Besides Oppenheimer, Benny has also starred in Licorice Pizza, as well as the upcoming satirical series, The Curse, which he co-created with Nathan Fielder. Meanwhile, Josh began working on the Netflix sports film with Sandler and Ronald Bronstein, the latter of whom co-wrote the script with Josh.
During the GQ interview, Benny also spoke about the allegations against his longtime former collaborator, Sebastian Bear-McClard. The latter, who served as a producer on Uncut Gems and is one of the co-founders of Elara Pictures, was accused of sexual misconduct this. Elara Pictures had previously split ties with Bear-McClard in July 2022 after becoming aware of his alleged behavior.
“It’s disgusting, and when you find out something about somebody that you didn’t realize, you just have to be much more careful,” Benny said. “It’s a lot, and it’s not something that you want to have happen to anybody. And when you find it out, the one thing that you can do is really just take control.”
The allegations against Bear-McClard involved inappropriate on-set behavior for Uncut Gems and the Safdie Brothers’ 2017 crime thriller, Good Time, which were both released by A24. The distributor wasn’t aware of the allegations when it licensed Good Time for U.S. release in 2016. The company also never received a complaint during the making of Uncut Gems.
As of March, Bear-McClard was involved in private mediation with the Safdie Brothers. A spokeswoman for the writer-directors said at the time, “The Elara team were made aware of Sebastian McClard’s behavior in July 2022. They took immediate action and terminated him.” Elara Pictures’ upcoming Netflix film doesn’t involve Bear-McClard.