What will the greatest threat to Ron Burgundy and his action news team be in the Anchorman sequel? Why, innovation, diversity, and change of course!
Seemingly greenlit by the sheer collective will of comedy fans and the cast and crew alike, Anchorman 2 is now — as I like to say — a thing. The public campaign to make it happen took years and suffered serious setbacks (such as the studio simply saying “no,” and that seeming to be the end of it), but a recent in-character announcement from Will Ferrell on Conan rang in comedy geek excitement as virtually every cast-member signed on for a sequel that is, apparently, still little more than a pile of scribbled napkins and good intentions at the moment.
“We’ve done about two per cent! Half a per cent? We’ve got five pages of story notes and chunks of story. We’re holing up writing for the next three months.”
That’s director Adam McKay speaking with Empire and clarifying that while there’s no script, they’ve got big ideas.
“It’s right when all the news started changing with the 24-hours news cycle in ’78 or ’79,” McKay explains. “All of a sudden, local news stations diversified and had Latino anchors and African-American anchors, and any time you’re talking about diversity and the Action News team, that’s always fun to deal with.”
McKay is referring to the era surrounding CNN’s landmark 1980 debut, where news delivery changed and local stations were forced to radically shift in response. Diversity is of course a key factor in the stream-of-consciousness conflict that drives the first film, with Christina Applegate’s character butting up against the glass ceiling that is Burgundy himself. Will we be exploring Ron’s charming racist side this time? I have a feeling folks like Aziz Ansari and Ken Jeung will be showing up to challenge Ron’s lily-white worldview of news delivery. In fact, I bet McKay’s phone is blowing up right now as his associated roster of young comedians (all of which were probably influenced by the nearly decade-old first film) all try and wedge themselves in.
As I’m sure you do, I’ve got that gnawing sensation in the back of my mind that maybe this isn’t a good idea, but it’s tough not to get excited. It seems well within these guys’ abilities to generate another film’s worth of hilarious ridiculousness in this world, and as long as it all branches out from the characters themselves, they’re golden. Let’s all send out good vibes as they start putting pen to paper as we speak.
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Source | Empire (via Collider)