Murder Mystery 2 will follow up on Kyle Newachek’s original comedy film, and Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston will also reprise their roles from the original. However, Newachek will not be taking the lead on the new film, having been replaced by Jeremey Garelick.
Discussing how Garelick gained Sandler’s trust as a director, Garelick told The Hollywood Reporter, “It was really that first time that he called me after reading some pages that I wrote, and he was laughing. That was that moment where, for me, I felt the confidence where I was like, ‘OK, Adam Sandler’s laughing at something I just wrote, so I’m feeling good about it.'”
Garelick added, “And then once we started shooting, I actually got COVID two days before. The prep on this was insane. We were prepping in Hawaii and Paris, and they’re 12 hours apart from each other, and we had two crews. I had to direct for the first three days from my hotel room over FaceTime at a monitor. That was not great for the confidence. But after I got healthy, we started having some fun.”
The Wedding Ringer director also noted what it’s like to direct two big names in film, saying, “I’ve worked with Jennifer before on a movie called The Break-Up. She’s just awesome — and Adam. They’re so professional; they’re so quick. Adam is such a perfectionist. He worked so hard. He’ll outwork everybody, and he’ll stay on set, even when he’s done shooting, to give notes. He’s a filmmaker, and I just learned so much from him and from Jen. It was film school with two of the greatest teachers of all time.”
