Paramount Passes on 'Anchorman 2'

Just a couple days ago, writer-director Adam McKay said there was still hope for Anchorman 2, citing how far Paul Rudd and particularly Steve Carell had dropped their prices to appear in the film. The hope was to get the green light and shoot early next year. Instead, here's McKay's Tweet (via The Film Stage) from earlier today: "So bummed. Paramount basically passed on Anchorman 2. Even after we cut our budget down. We tried." I'm not entirely sure what happens now; certainly, you'd think McKay and Will Ferrell could shop it around, but there might be some sort of contractual language that prohibits that. I'm not totally shocked by Paramount's decision, though, because everyone involved has publicly stated they're all resigned to the fact that a sequel won't be nearly as good as the original. Tell me, if you were Paramount and you heard that and then you looked at the Forbes rankings that consistently place Ferrell among the most overpaid stars in the business, would you bait your hook with this idea? The one thing that is surprising is that, obviously, Team Funny or Die knew financing it would be trouble and did cut the budget. Now, if this is a $40 million movie, Paramount may have shot itself in the foot, but we don't know what the proposed budget would be. I can think of one company that would probably jump at the chance to make this: Universal. With the SNL and Office connections and the studio struggling to get out of its endless pool of quicksand, a recognizable property like this could be something to build an entire spring campaign around. But we'll see if it goes anywhere or if Ferrell and McKay just put Ron Burgundy to rest.

Comments

[KXB]

This just in: Paramount has pulled the plug on the project, per Adam McKay's tweet...

[KXB]

My bad; meant to post that to the previous Anchorman post (d'oh!)...

[Chris]

Do you think this is Paramount telling Will Ferrell that they do not think he is very bankable anymore??

[Get The Big Picture]

Everyone else is, so probably.