1) Anchorman 2: The Musical
Anchorman 2 may have eventually happened, but it wasn’t always to be the conventional follow-up that we got. In fact, had writer-director Adam McKay and writer-star Will Ferrell had their way, the film might have actually been something unique, and prompted a less indifferent critical reaction.
In 2009, Ferrell, McKay, and other members of the original cast (including news team members Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, and David Koechner) were all ready to go on a Broadway musical production of Anchorman 2. The idea was to do the musical on stage for six months, honing it along the way, then eventually shooting the final show – with scenes, gags, and musical bits perfected after half-a-year of performances – as a movie at the end of its Broadway run.
According to David ‘Champ Kind’ Koechner, they were going to, “rehearse in the spring and run all summer, and that fall we were going to shoot the new movie.” Then Paramount studio killjoys took away the money to make the movie, and the musical ended up as dead as that guy Brick killed with a trident.
Shame. You get the feeling that the out-there Anchorman team could have done wonders slotting their style into a musical.
