Apatow wrote 'Funny People' for Sandler

Judd Apatow wrote 'Funny People' so he could work with Adam Sandler.

The writer-and-director admitted he and his long-term friend have been wanting to work together for a long time but the chance only came about when the 'Happy Gilmore' star insisted he would appear in his pal's next film - even though neither of them knew what it would be.

Judd revealed: "We've been dancing around working together as actor and director for years. He wanted me to direct one of his movies a few years ago, but I just never thought I was skilled enough to take him on...until now.

"There's so much untapped talent there, so of course I've wanted to work with him. Before 'Knocked Up' came out, I sent him a copy of it on DVD, and he watched it in his trailer. And he called me up afterwards and said: 'Whatever the next one is, I'm in'. He didn't care what it was about he just wanted to do the next one together.

"Then I had to quickly go to my notebook and see if I had any ideas that fit Adam. Luckily I had this idea for 'Funny People', because I so didn't want to just do an Adam Sandler movie per se. He's such a good actor - so I wanted to really take advantage of that."

The pair both enjoyed working together, and Judd admits neither of them are looking forward to ending promotion of the film.

Judd added to Moviehole online: "We're about to go to Europe to promote this movie, and then it's over - and I think we're both going to be really depressed. He's my friend, but we're both so busy that we don't get to see each other a lot - we'd go years where we're trying to find time to hang out."