Jennifer Hudson's New Role Is So '90s

There are some people in this world who appear capable of doing anything and everything they want (and all of it with a perfect finesse). I am not one of these people, so I can only look upon a supreme, multi-talented woman like Jennifer Hudson with complete admiration, adoration and awe. It's a pleasure to discover that the singer and actress will be returning to our screens extremely soon, as Hudson has been cast in Adam Sandler's new movie for Netflix. Added bonus? It also sounds like her singing skills will be getting put to tremendous use.

Since her days wowing the country with her stunning vocal range in American Idol to being one of the few people on the planet capable of upstaging Beyoncé (during her Oscar winning performance in Dreamgirls), Hudson has repeatedly proved herself to be an immensely versatile and enigmatic performer. However, despite a recent guest role in Empire and a deeply powerful performance in Spike Lee's Chi-Raq (and her upcoming role in Hairspray Live!), it's felt as though Hudson hasn't been given a big role to really show off those skills for a while now.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie (titled Sandy Wexler) will be set in the '90s and will follow talent manager Sandy (Sandler) as he strives to represent a set of eccentric clients at the far edges of show business. Hudson is to play talented singer Courtney Clarke, whom Sandy discovers at an amusement park, only to have his professional judgement compromised when he falls in love with her. Judging from Sandler's previous projects, I can only imagine that all sorts of ridiculous circumstances will get in the way of the two being able to ever make it work, but I'm sure it'll have a lot of heart too.

The project, of course, does appear to share some similarities with Sandler's 1998 movie The Wedding Singer — a romantic comedy also set in a past era (the '80s) which not only had a lot of heart to it but which also featured an outstanding soundtrack. As such, I can't help but hope that the '90s era in which Sandy Wexler is set will help to provide us with a similarly great soundtrack and a spectacular '90s songbook for Hudson to belt out throughout the movie. After all, you don't hire a voice like Hudson's unless you've got songs to really show it off. Though it remains to be seen whether the film will have Hudson singing an original soundtrack, a set of pre-existing '90s classics, or a combination of the two, it's clear that Sandler wanted a big talent with which to carry the musical aspect of the movie, and, either way, her voice will slay so many great '90s vibes, regardless.

The movie is the third to be made out of Sandler's four-movie deal with Netflix with The Ridiculous Six and The Do-Over having both already been released exclusively on the streaming service. However, his Netflix projects have thus far not been favourably accepted by critics. From what we know of the plot, Sandy Wexler seems as though it could show Sandler taking a step away from the goofball output of his most recent movies and returning to the more heartfelt (but still supremely silly) work of The Wedding Singer, which is undoubtedly one of the most iconic and critically favored movies of his career. It'd be a shame to see a great talent like Hudson be wasted in a film which doesn't live up to her tremendous skill set.

However the movie turns out, one things for sure: it'll still provide a fantastic platform for Hudson to flex her musical prowess for us all to enjoy (and hopefully, some nostalgic '90s music vibes to boot). That's one alluring factor that Sandler was definitely wise to cast in the film's favor. The movie is set to premiere on Netflix at some point in 2017.

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