Though principal photography for the long-awaited Anchorman 2 isn’t scheduled to begin until next February, it appears that we’ll actually get our first look at the reunited Channel 4 news team much sooner than we thought.  We’ve been told by someone who caught an advanced screening of The Dictator that the Sacha Baron Cohen comedy is preceded by a brief teaser featuring the entire news team (sans Christina Applegate) talking about how excited they are to return.  Huzzah!  Hit the jump for more.

Though writer/director Adam McKay is currently busy writing the script for the long-awaited sequel to Anchorman with Will Ferrell (thank the Maker!), it appears he’s lining up a fairly ambitious project as his follow-up to Anchorman 2.  McKay is in talks to develop to direct the remake of the 1971 comedy Uptown Saturday Night.  The project has been in development for years with Will Smith and Denzel Washington attached to star, but the addition of McKay makes the remake all the more enticing.  Hit the jump for more.

When we last left Anchorman 2, director and co-writer Adam McKay was willing to divulge little about the highly-anticipated sequel.  The only hints he dropped about the plot were the couple phrases “Bowling for dollars” and “custody battle”.  Now he’s provided a few more details about the story, and they sound perfect for the Channel 4 news team and the comic potential for the sequel.

Hit the jump for more.  Paramount is reportedly considering a release of the film somewhere between Christmas 2013 and summer 2014.

Now that writer/director Adam McKay has an Anchorman sequel to prep, a couple new directors have been set to helm the Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg comedy Three Mississippi in his place.  THR reports that the team of Sean Anders and John Morris are in negotiations to rewrite and direct the pic, which centers on two Philadelphia neighbors whose annual Thanksgiving game of tackle football has become extraordinarily heated.  Ferrell and Wahlberg star as members of the opposing families, and last summer Alec Baldwin and Jeremy Renner were circling roles in the film.  No word on their involvement at the moment, but I would love to see Wahlberg and Baldwin team up again.

Anders and Morris are best known for writing Hot Tub Time Machine, She’s Out of My League, and Mr. Popper’s Penguins.  Anders made his directorial debut with 2008’s Sex Drive, and helmed the Adam Sandler/Andy Samberg comedy That’s My Boy which opens this summer.  Though it’s sad to see McKay leave the director’s chair on this one, I guess Anchorman 2 is a fair trade.  He’ll remain a producer on Three Mississippi, and Warner Bros. hopes to begin production on the film this September.

It still hasn’t completely sunk in that Anchorman 2 is becoming a reality.  Granted, we probably won’t see it until late 2013 at the earliest, but after waiting this long for the return of the Channel 4 News Team, I can wait a little bit longer.  Considering the genius of the first movie, I’m game for whatever co-writer and director Adam McKay has in store for the sequel, and now he’s dropped a couple of brief hints on what we can possibly expect to see in Ron Burgundy’s next adventure.

Hit the jump for what McKay had to say about Anchorman 2, which is scheduled to begin shooting in February.  [Update: THR reports that the movie is budgeted at $50 million (the first film cost $26 million), and Paramount is considering release dates ranging from Christmas 2013 to summer 2014.  The sequel will also be a period piece like the original, but McKay wouldn't say what period.]

I genuinely thought this day would never come. After coming thisclose to a greenlight with the original cast and director in tow, Paramount ultimately passed on a sequel to Anchorman, one of the best comedies of the past 25 years. Writer/director Adam McKay revealed that their pitch to the studio was to do an all-out musical, with the entire cast performing for four months on Broadway before going straight into production. Apparently averse to brilliant ideas, Paramount balked at the notion. Now, with great pleasure, I’m happy to say that Anchorman 2 is back on track. Hit the jump for more.

[Update: Backstage video of Ron Burgandy/Will Ferrell's antics has gone online, and we've included it after the jump. Also, McKay confirmed on Twitter that the movie is definitely happening and filming on Anchorman 2 will begin in February 2013. Huzzah!]

Will Ferrell is heading back to college. New Line Cinema has acquired the rights to Andrew Ferguson’s book Crazy U: One Dad’s Crash Course in Getting His Kid Into College and they’ve attached the Old School star to play the titular father. Deadline reports that Crazy U is being developed as a potential star vehicle for Ferrell, and he’ll produce alongside Gary Sanchez’s Adam McKay and Jessica Elbaum. The memoir chronicles Ferguson’s journey to get his son into the perfect college, highlighting the father’s obsessive compulsion to do everything exactly right. Ferguson notes his meeting with a private college consultant, preparations for the SAT, talking with essay coaches, and more OCD over-parenting adventures.

The material could veer heavily into cheese territory in different hands, but Ferrell is a swell choice to tackle the outlandish father character. If they go the Step Brothers route and up the weird factor, we could be in for another comedy home run from the Farrell-McKay team. Hit the jump to read a synopsis for the book.

Just recently we learned that Casa de mi Padre director Matt Piedmont had been set to direct the long-in-the-works adaptation of Frank Portman’s novel King Dork for producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. Now Variety reports that development is moving right along as Project X star Thomas Mann is now in final negotiations to start. The story, described as described as “part mystery, part coming-of-age tale, and part critique on teenage popular culture,” is set in 1987 and centers on two high school outsiders who bond over their love of classic rock. The protagonist finds his dead father’s copy of The Catcher in the Rye and his life changes forever. Hit the jump for more.

The Spanish-language pic Casa de mi Padre starring Will Ferrell is looking like it’ll be one of the more ridiculous comedies to come our way in quite some time, and now director Matt Piedmont is lining up his next project. Piedmont is teaming back up with Gary Sanchez and NALA Films to direct an adaptation of Frank Portman’s novel King Dork (in English). The story is set in 1987 and centers on two high school outsiders who bond over their love of classic rock. The protagonist finds his dead father’s copy of The Catcher in the Rye and his life changes forever. The book is described as “part mystery, part coming-of-age tale, and part critique on teenage popular culture.” Hit the jump for more.

Earlier today, Steve sat down with Will Ferrell for Casa de mi Padre, and learned some good news and some bad news.  Bad news first: Anchorman 2 remains dead.  There were places for a sequel to go, but the movie isn’t going anywhere.  Now the good news: you may remember that last May, Ferrell said he, John C. Reilly, and writer-director Adam McKay were considering a sequel to Step Brothers.  Today, Ferrell told Steve that they are going to start writing a script really soon with the hope of filming it in the fall.

That’s a fairly quick turnaround.  In June, we heard that McKay and Ferrell were considering the football comedy Three Mississippi.  The movie is about two Philadelphia neighbors whose annual Thanksgiving game of tackle football has become extraordinarily heated.  I like that premise, but you won’t hear me complaining if Step Brothers 2 goes in front of cameras first.  I’m always up for a fuckin’ Catalina wine mixer.  Look for part of Steve’s interview later today (we’ll update this article) but until then, watch the trailer for the first Step Brothers after the jump.

Back in March of last year, director Adam McKay (The Other Guys) spoke about the difficulty of making a Hard R-rated anti-superhero movie. Turns out that McKay is prophetic. Columbia Pictures has put the adaptation of the Garth Ennis/Darick Robertson comic The Boys into turnaround. The Boys, an informal moniker for a CIA squad tasked with keeping tabs on (and occasionally putting down) superheroes, was apparently not to the studio’s liking. The reports don’t cite any specific reason for the drop, but McKay himself did mention the pic would be a hard sell and compared it to a “current day Watchmen.” Probably not what you want to tell a movie studio. In other news, Columbia Pictures’ sister slate Screen Gems has also backed out of the adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s YA fantasy series, Mortal Instruments. Hit the jump for more.

A Black List spec script written by Lauryn Kahn may have found its director in Jake Szymanksi (Saturday Night Live). Kahn, who had previously worked as an assistant to Adam McKay at “Funny or Die,” had her comedy effort picked up by Fox 2000 earlier this year. Szymanski, a director of numerous shorts at “Funny or Die,” has been eyed by the studio to helm the project, He’s Fuckin’ Perfect. The plot follows a girl who is savvy in the ways of social media but hesitant when it comes to romance. Using her tech skills to vet her friends’ dates, she happens to stumble upon the perfect guy and decides to turn herself into his ideal woman. Emma Stone was previously reported to be circling the role.

He’s Fuckin’ Perfect will be produced through Gary Sanchez, the production company of Will Ferrell and McKay, who also helped Kahn hone and shape her script. Hit the jump for more on the project and an example of Szymanski’s work.

Actress and all-around awesome person Emma Stone is currently in negotiations to star in the comedy He’s Fuckin’ Perfect. The spec script comes from Lauryn Kahn, a writer who’s spent the last four years working as writer-director Adam McKay’s assistant. Deadline reports that He’s Fuckin’ Perfect “focuses on a social media savvy girl who is pessimistic about love and vets her friends’ dates to find flaws. When that process leads her to uncover the perfect guy, she decides to use her internet research skills to turn herself into his perfect match.” McKay will be producing the pic alongside Will Ferrell through their Gary Sanchez banner. Stone was spot-on in Easy A, and this sounds like another strong female-led pic well suited for the young actress (though the title will most certainly be tweaked).

Stone has been quite the busy girl as of late. She did double duty this summer with the hit dramatic adaptation The Help and the dramedy ensemble Crazy, Stupid, Love., she recently wrapped The Amazing Spider-Man, she’s currently reuniting with Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer on the star-studded period pic Gangster Squad, and she’s set to host Saturday Night Live on November 12th.

Writer-director Adam McKay has made his name on comedies like Anchorman and The Other Guys, but he’s recently been branching out into new genres.  He’s been trying to adapt Garth Ennis’ comic book series The Boys into a Hard-R anti-superhero flick, and now he’s producing a documentary about the school dropout epidemic in the United States.  Deadline reports that Jason Pollock’s feature documentary will be shot throughout the current school year and released in fall 2012.  The dropout rate has climbed about 50% in major cities and McKay says he wants “to put the education system front and center in this upcoming presidential election.”  Pollock is planning to organize a screening tour of colleges in the lead-up to Election Day, although I don’t understand why you would show a movie about the dangers of dropping out of school to people who didn’t drop out of school.

However, McKay hasn’t completely abandoned comedy.  Filming just wrapped on the third (and possibly final) season of HBO’s Eastbound and Down, and he’s currently set to re-team with Will Ferrell for Swear to God and possibly Three Mississippi.

One of the great things about Danny McBride is how he creates different iterations of his comic persona. McBride usually plays one form of white trash or another but The Foot Fist Way’s Fred Simmons is different than Kenny Powers, and way different than the characters in Your Highness and The Pineapple Express. All are delusional egotistical assholes, but each offer different dilemmas and delights. Kenny Powers – the main character of Eastbound and Down – was a superstar and he’s still got the swagger long after he lost his arm and his money, and even when he’s hiding out in Mexico. It’s a different sort of delusion than his other characters: Kenny’s someone desperately clinging to the time when they were still hot shit, while the majority of his other characters never hit those heights, and it makes all of the difference in the world. Our review of the season one and season two Blu-rays of Eastbound and Down follow after the jump.