Adam McKay Sez Paramount "Basically" Passes On ANCHORMAN 2!

Beaks here...

Sequels to classic comedies rarely go well, but rarely do you have the original creative team in place ready and rarin' to get the band back together. So there's a reason many of us have been giddy at the prospect of ANCHORMAN 2. Given writer-director Adam McKay's sterling track record (two of his films made my Top 100 of the Decade list, and I tried to make a case for the third), there was every reason to believe we wouldn't be getting warmed over CADDYSHACK 2/GHOSTBUSTERS 2/BLUES BROTHERS 2000 leftovers. According to McKay via Twitter, Paramount doesn't give a shit. They don't want ANCHORMAN 2 under any circumstances. Here's the bad news...

So bummed. Paramount basically passed on Anchorman 2. Even after we cut our budget down. We tried.

Now, this could be a brilliant maneuvering ploy by McKay. Nothing better than rallying the base to prove to the studio that there is a fervent desire for more adventures of the Channel 4 news team, right? You want ANCHORMAN 2? Let the studio know in this here talk back. Otherwise, it looks like Ron Burgundy is one-and-done. For the record, ANCHORMAN is - to these ears, at least - the most quoted comedy of the last decade. There's an affection for these characters and the scotch-soaked world they inhabit. I don't understand why Paramount would shoot this project down if it could be made for $100 million or less. The original may not have been a huge hit domestically, but this feels to me like an AUSTIN POWERS to AUSTIN POWERS 2 situation; the box-office uptick should be massive. McKay followed up that tweet a few hours later with this...

To all who asked: no we can't do Anchorman 2 at another studio. Paramount owns it.

Do the right thing, Paramount. I mean, if you're going to make xXx 3D, you at least owe us this.