It’s hard to name many comedy sequels that are worth your time. Hell, it’s hard to name any. So why should we be anything but worried about the proposed Anchorman 2? I talked to Will Ferrell at the Land of the Lost press day and asked him why he and Adam McKay think they can break the comedy sequel curse.
‘Oh, we don’t,’ he said. ‘It’s just that it would be really fun to do. It could be terrible. But, if they’re going to pay us to do it, why not?’
Of course Ferrell was half joking. He said that he and McKay started to get really excited for a sequel when they did a Funny or Die campus tour, where Ferrell took the stage as Ron Burgundy and interviewed the local dean or the captain of the football team. Audiences ate it up.
‘[T]he legacy of that movie just kept
building and building and we just got excited about it… I agree that
sequels are hard. I think we would use that as a challenge, to try to
make it the craziest sequel you’ve ever seen, with a live by the
sword, die by the sword kind of feel.’
The team was supposed to meet this week about a sequel, but they couldn’t get everyone in the same place at the same time. Instead McKay will speak with Steve Carrell, Paul Rudd and Ferrell individually and try to figure out the details.