Adam McKay says that the aborted sequel to Anchorman was going to be better than you imagined.

It was a musical,” he told me in a one on one interview. “We were going to do four months on Broadway and then jump right into filming.

That is amazing. And we’ll never see it. McKay explained that Paramount does computer modeling of potential profits on films (especially foreign) and didn’t see how the necessary 60 million dollar budget would work out. McKay tried to show them the Austin Powers model, but the studio stood firm.

There’s no hard feelings,” McKay said. “We have some cool projects set up at Paramount.

When asked if there was a chance of it ever happening, McKay said probably not. “We’ve moved on,” he said, noting that they were always very aware that sequels are rarely that good.

You should still do the Broadway run,” I told him, being a fanboy.

We tried,” McKay said. “But it’s too hard on the actors. And there’s no money for them.