Adam McKay expands on what we know about Anchorman 2

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

I love ANCHORMAN 2 news. News, news, news.  Here it goes down, down into this article…

According to director Adam McKay, up until a few months ago ANCHORMAN 2 was thought to be just about 100% dead and without hope as the studio refused to budge from a certain budget point that wouldn’t even pay for all of the actors, let alone the movie itself.  McKay and Ferrell were even on the verge of doing STEP BROTHERS 2, until one day their manager tried the studio for the last time and a little perfect storm of things had fallen into place such that all of a sudden the studio said yes.  So now that the movie is actually going to happen (which is more than a little bit wild), here are the new details shared by McKay as to what fans can expect which serve well to compliment his recent teasing comments.

Are all the main players back: Yeah, they’re all in... And I’m actually calling [Christina] Applegate’s manager, but we already have talked about the story and it looks like there will be something for her… we have an idea for her that we think is pretty cool. So tentatively right now she’s in. But obviously we kind of have to let it be what it’s gonna be, we don’t want to handcuff ourselves, but we love Applegate, so any chance to work with her is always fun.

What’s the state of the script: No, we haven’t written it yet… The last couple weeks we’ve been sitting down and banging out the story and putting it together.  [But] we’re going to start next week actually, we’re going to hole up. So I’m doing all my last meetings this week, because I know I’ll have less time.

How long might that process take: Usually in a month and a half to two months we can come up with the full draft, like a rough vomit-y draft. Then, you know how it goes, the real work is in the re-writing, so then we just pound it for the next five months… [And then we] improvise often [on set].

Any hints about what the story will be: We have a basic idea. I’ll tell you we’re staying roughly period, and I would just say it’s the next stage in the development of American media and news. The fun of these characters is they confront change very poorly.  So they’ve got some more change coming their way. I can say that pretty safely.

When should fans expect shooting to begin: We’re looking at January-February for shooting. Probably it’ll end up being February is my guess.

And what the studio is thinking about a release date: They’ve said Christmas, they’ve said March [2014], and then they’ve gone as late as May [2014].

You can read the whole of the interview right here, which I would strongly recommend if you enjoy knowing how these sorts of things work behind the scenes.

I’ll be honest: hearing all of this makes me go to Pleasure Town. Oh, look! The most glorious rainbow ever!