On Oscar weekend, moviegoers can spend their dollars catching up on nominated films that they missed. Or, they can laugh themselves silly by catching an alternate cut of a film that never stood a chance of earning awards recognition. Paramount has announced today that an R-rated cut of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is set for a 1,000-screen, one week only release starting on Feb. 28 and will contain entirely new jokes (753, to be exact) and an even longer running time.
“Originally the movie was four hours long, and they played around with the idea of splitting it into two movies,” Will Ferrell said. “But that didn’t really work so we just had a second editor working the whole time with alternative jokes. It’s the same movie, [but] it’s 20 minutes longer, there’s a musical number we had to cut from the original one, little treats like that.”
Director Adam McKay recently told The New York Times that this new version has some old jokes to keep the continuity of the story but about 95 per cent of the comedy from the theatrical version is replaced with newer, raunchier stuff. “This is a stitched up, Frankenstein version,” he said. “You’ll either love it or hate it.”
Unfortunately, it may be hard to convince audiences to head back for another second helping (or is it a third helping?) of Ron Burgundy’s gags. Word-of-mouth on Anchorman 2 was mixed, which led to a solid but not spectacular box-office run in late December. The heavily publicized, highly anticipated PG-13 sequel made less at the U.S. box office than original R-rated hits from 2013 like Identity Thief and We’re the Millers.
McKay may end up looking foolish for not just spending extra energy on a new cut, but announcing its run so close to the release date could also result in lower turnout. Plus, opening against Liam Neeson’s Non-Stop may not be the wisest call, since that film has a lot of buzz building from heavy ad rotation with the Olympics.
Tell us, are you interested in checking out a new cut of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues?
