October 28th, 2013 
James Shotwell 
If there is one comedy the world is impatiently waiting for it’s Anchorman 2. Having been teased since 2012 and discussed for years before that, the return of Ron Burgundy and the Action News Team has been a long time coming, and if director Adam McKay is to be believed, there may be two versions of the upcoming feature for fans to enjoy.
Speaking to Empire about the film, which goes by the full title Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, McKay explained “We did so much improv on this one that we can literally replace every single joke in the movie and put in alt scenes and alt improv runs. I think the editor’s working on it right now, with 250 new jokes.”
Improvisation in place of concrete dialogue has become the go-to route for comedies in 2013, but it has been one of the key elements to McKay’s success for years. He and frequent collaborator (not to mention Anchorman 2 star) Will Ferrell have been using improv to find humor on set for every one of their motion pictures, but as far as we can find this is the first time McKay has opened up about just how much unused comedy is left in the editing bay.
Whether or not the alternate cut of Anchorman 2 will ever see the light of day is still up for debate, but McKay to give up to such a release before the end of his time with Empire. Building off his previous comments about the editing process, McKay offered, “think it would be really funny to put it in theatres for midnight showings. I know that I personally, if I loved a movie and someone told me that, like if Airplane! had been released with all-new jokes, I’d be like, ‘you’ve got to be fucking kidding me!’ I’d see it in a second.”
Would you pay to see an alternate cut of a film if you knew the entirety of the humor had been replaced with different jokes? Comment below and let us know your thoughts.
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is scheduled to arrive in theaters just before Christmas 2013. Click below to view the latest trailer.
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I’m not even going to pay to see the original cut of the film, so no, I won’t pay to see two versions. The trailers look truly awful and far from funny. Found myself rolling my eyes a lot. Will Ferrell is way past his prime and it’s gotten incredibly old for years now. There was no need to make a sequel. They’re reaching.