The 'Uncut Gems' directors describe the movie's path from Sacha Baron Cohen to Jonah Hill to finally landing Adam Sandler and major Oscar buzz

• "Uncut Gems" directors Josh and Benny Safdie told Business Insider about the decade-long journey to get the movie made.
• Over the years, Sacha Baron Cohen and Jonah Hill were attached to play the lead character, jeweler Howard Ratner. But the Safdie brothers always wanted Adam Sandler to play him.
• The brothers said the involvement of Cohen and later Hill strengthened the project, which eventually helped get Sandler interested.
• The movie first got Martin Scorsese on as an executive producer and later Scott Rudin came on as producer.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Directors Josh and Benny Safdie are the first to admit, it was pretty naive to think they could get Adam Sandler to be in one of their movies.

Not only does Sandler have a comedy empire fueled by a deal with Netflix that pays him in the millions, but when the comedy legend does jump to dramatic roles, he works with the likes of Paul Thomas Anderson and Noah Baumbach.

That's partly what makes the success of the Safdies' latest, "Uncut Gems" (in select theaters Friday and nationwide on Christmas day), so remarkable.

It landed the Sandman.

But the directors are quick to point out that the movie probably wouldn't have been possible without Sacha Baron Cohen and Jonah Hill both at different times being attached to play the lead.

In "Uncut Gems," we follow New York City jeweler Howard Ratner as he tries to navigate his personal and professional lives over the span of a few days while he tries to land his biggest score. To play Ratner, the Safdies needed someone who had the talent to be despicable but at the same time likable enough that the audience would want to see him make it through the madness he's created for himself.

That's why Sandler instantly came to mind ten years ago when the Safdies began thinking about the story. But they learned quickly it would be near impossible.

"We went to Sandler in 2012 and he passed - hard pass," Josh Safdie told Business Insider with a laugh. "It was such a shot in the dark."

The story was inspired by their father's time working in New York City's Diamond District. Fascinated by the colorful characters both behind and in front of the counter, the Sadfies felt it would be the perfect setting to explore a gritty story centered on someone who is constantly hustling.

At the time, the story was a two-hander: a younger character who worked for an older man. It was kind of the dynamic they saw as kids between their father and his boss. So they went after Harvey Keitel for a while to play the old boss. But after researching the Diamond District more following the completion of their 2014 movie, "Heaven Knows What," they went back to the idea of the story focusing on one character, and they wanted him to be Jewish.

They eventually got the attention of Sacha Baron Cohen.

"We did table reads," Benny Safdie said to Business Insider of how far things went with Cohen.

For a year, the brothers worked with Cohen, feeling they would mesh as they all enjoy having realism in their storytelling (Cohen is known best for doing faux documentaries; the Safdies often cast their movies with non-actors). But the comic never officially signed on.

Soon after, Martin Scorsese agreed to come on "Uncut Gems" as an executive producer. It gave the movie a huge profile, leading to a higher budget and the attention of Jonah Hill.

"We took him to lunch and talked about making something together," Josh recalled. "Originally it was for another project, this reptile thing. He had just finished shooting 'War Dogs' at the time and we thought it would be so cool to work with someone who is one of our peers. We told him that Sacha wasn't committing and he said, 'I'll do it. I want to do this.' And we were like, really? And everyone was like, 'We can finance this movie.' So we went down that road."

But the Safdies said they could never figure out how to age down the Howard Ratner character. They always saw him as a father with teenage kids. They didn't want to lose that. And eventually they lost Hill as he became more focused on his feature directing debut, "Mid90s," and starring in the Netflix series, "Maniac."

Through all of this, the Safdies went and made "Good Time" with Robert Pattinson, which had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017. It just so happened that Sandler was there too with Baumbach's "The Meyerowitz Stories." They made another play for him and this time the brothers got Sandler's attention.

Sandler wasn't just impressed by the brothers' movies, but it was also the players that attached themselves along the way, big names like Scorsese and Rudin. Both came on because of the previous iterations with Cohen and Hill attached.

"Without Jonah we would not have gotten Scott Rudin," Josh said. "He was huge for this movie. He was on it for three years pushing us to add jokes. He really worked us hard on the script."

But what Sandler brought to the character they said made the movie an award-season contender.

"He wanted to make Howard more aware of everyone around him," Benny said. "Howard does things that are wrong but he's aware they are wrong. And that's a very big distinction."

"I told him the inspiration for this movie is someone like Rodney Dangerfield," Josh added. "A guy who is on all the time like in 'Easy Money.' And that really connected with him. He found funny moments in the script but when he got involved, we infused it with more comedy and it became the backbone. Sandler brought sincerity to this hard-edge character. This movie without Adam in it might be too hard. It might not function the same way."