Will Ferrell talks EASTBOUND AND DOWN, MAN VS. WILD, SHERLOCK HOLMES, and ANCHORMAN 2

At this weekend’s press junket for “Land of the Lost”, I was able to participate in a roundtable interview with Will Ferrell. During the interview he gave us updates on the future of “Eastbound and Down”, “Man vs. Wild”, what’s up with his “Sherlock Holmes” movie with Sacha Baron Cohen, and “Anchorman 2″.

The big news is that his comedic take on “Sherlock Holmes” is in limbo until the other “Holmes” movie arrives later this year.

According to Will, “It’s just a question of the Robert Downey Jr. one that they’ve just shot which I think will come out during Christmas or something like that, I think everyone just wants to see – well, that one’s probably going to be a hit franchise, and whether that is something you want to go up against, would it just inform the audience to allow for us to do a comedy version, or would it feel like oh, we’re just trying to copy them, even though I think we wrote our script before they did, I don’t know. Yeah, we’re thinking about it.”

For more info on his various projects, continue reading after the jump:

Q: Jody Hill says there’s going to be a second season of Eastbound and Down. Are you going to come back?

Will: I would love to, but it’s up to the guys. I think the direction they’re talking about going with the second season, which I don’t want to spoil, is something that wouldn’t lend itself to my character reappearing.

Q: Could you do someone else with a different wig?

Will: I could, maybe I could just become – I would be up for that too, especially where they’re planning on going with the show. Yeah, they’ll probably start, hopefully, those guys are busy up until probably next year, January, February, when we’ll start filming, and then put it out again in the spring.

Q: What about being on Man vs Wild next week?

Will: Yeah, it was crazy. It was fun but it was one of those things that I knew I would be out there going, ‘Why did I do this?’ mixed with at the same time I couldn’t resist. I couldn’t say no to it. We were forty miles north of the Arctic Circle in like northern Sweden, just in the middle of nowhere, making snow shoes out of birch branches and eating reindeer eyeballs and things like that. So it was pretty intense.

Q: How long were you there?

Will: It was forty-eight hours, they scaled it back for me because he’s usually out there an entire week, or five days, but they made it really safe for me, they made sure that I think I had a few more of the creature comforts that I don’t think he gets.

Q: Such as?

Will: Such as warm clothes, come over here and you can warm your hands, like a base camp, things like that.

Q: Who made that pitch, how did that come together?

Will: You know, as far as I know I think my manager, who also represents Sacha Baron Cohen, is friends with the London manager who represents Sacha, who also represents Bear Grylls, and they were having lunch in London one day talking about various things and a guy goes, ‘By the way, Bear Grylls is a huge Will Farrell fan, would he ever want to come on the show?’ And Jimmy, who I work with and happens to be a huge Man vs Wild fan was like, ‘That is a great idea, let me talk to him,’ so then he pitched it to me, and I hadn’t see a lot of them so I watched a bunch, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is too crazy to say no to.’ So that’s kind of how the whole thing – and then I think Universal loved it because of the cross-promotional thing and it all added up in a way that it seemed appealing to everyone.

Q: Who wins, man or the wild?

Will: Wild kicks man’s ass, and then man gets up courageous at the end.

Q: You have a Sherlock Holmes project also? Would it be a comedy Sherlock Holmes?

Will: Oh yeah, yeah, definitely, yeah. It’s just a question of the Robert Downey Jr. one that they’ve just shot which I think will come out during Christmas or something like that, I think everyone just wants to see – well, that one’s probably going to be a hit franchise, and whether that is something you want to go up against, would it just inform the audience to allow for us to do a comedy version, or would it feel like oh, we’re just trying to copy them, even though I think we wrote our script before they did, or something like that, I don’t know. Yeah, we’re thinking about it.

Q: Are you doing Anchorman 2

Will: I thought we were, I kept say that. I was told we were and now I’ve heard it’s too hard to get everyone together, so hopefully Adam is going to be able to talk to all the guys individually and see if there’s a time and place that were can figure out how to do this.

Q: Comedy sequels have a difficult history, why do you guys think that you can break that curse and come back and do a sequel that’s just as good as the original?

Will: Oh we don’t. It’s just that it would be really fun to do. It could be terrible, but if they’re going to pay us to do it, why not, right?