Exclusive Interviews: Adam Sandler and Josh Gad Talk Pixels

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Aliens have sent old school video game characters to destroy our world in Chris Columbus ' PIXELS, a live-action/CGI comedy that'll have you wanting to travel back to the sweet arcade days of the 1980s. In the film, Sam Brenner (Adam Sandler), Will Cooper (Kevin James), Ludlow Lamonsoff (Josh Gad), and Eddie “The Fire Blaster” Plant (Peter Dinklage) are no strangers to saving the world. As a matter of fact, they've done it thousands of times – while inside of  video arcades. Now, they're going to have to do it for real, or it's game over. In Pixels, when an intergalactic presence intercepts video feeds of a tournament featuring classic video games, and mistakes them as a declaration of war – they launch an attack on Earth using the video games characters as their instruments of destruction. Together, with the help of Lt. Col. Violet Van Patten (Michelle Monaghan), a specialist capable of arming the arcaders with unique weaponry, the world's best classic video game players must defend the planet from the encroaching space invaders.

This is Chris Columbus' first collaboration with Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions. PIXELS was written for the screen by Tim Herily and Timothy Dowling, and is based on the short-film by Patrick Jean. I spoke with Adam Sandler about the thrill of working on a film with such intense special effects, his long-standing collaborative history with screenwriter Tim Herily, and what it was like battling Pac-Man inside of a real-life maze that spanned several city blocks.

In the next interview I speak with Josh Gad about working beside one of his favorite childhood directors, digging deep to portray a character who is truly unhinged, and getting his ass kicked, repeatedly, by actress Ashley Benson.