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'Anchorman 2' star Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay discuss their comedy sequel

'Anchorman 2' features the return of actors such as Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, and Christina Applegate as well as new faces like Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson.

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Frank Masi/Dreamworks Pictures/AP
'Anchorman 2' will feature the return of Will Ferrell (pictured) as newsman Ron Burgundy.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

The makers of “Anchorman 2,” the sequel to the 2004 film starring Will Ferrell, have been doing their best to keep the plot of the movie under wraps.

But director Adam McKay will say this: there’s a dolphin involved. Namely, Ferrell yelling at one.

McKay told Moviefone the movie kicks off with a prologue which shows what happened to San Diego’s TV newsman Ron Burgundy (Ferrell) and his girlfriend and co-anchor Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) since the last film and that the prologue includes said incident. (According to Los Angeles Times writer Chris Lee, Ron is struggling with his career and is an announcer at Sea World when he yells at the dolphin.)

“We tried to think of some lowest of the lows,” McKay said of the incident.

“Anchorman” didn’t become a breakout hit when it was first released – it was only after it came out on DVD that fans began rewatching it and the movie’s lines started being endlessly quoted. “The first movie did great on cable and DVD,” McKay told the Los Angeles Times. “And that's where it really took off — much like 'Austin Powers.’”

So now a sequel is arriving nine years later, and the movie finds Ron and his news team – reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), sports reporter Champ Kind (David Koechner), and weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) – going from their beloved San Diego to New York, where they’ve been taken on at a 24-hour news network, GNN. 

But Ferrell says they aren’t exactly the stars of the network at first.

“[The network] literally just needed more bodies,” he told Moviefone. “They had to hire so many people, a massive group of people, at one time, to be on around the clock; that's why he and his news team are on at two in the morning. And, of course, they are horribly upset by that.”

In addition to the main cast returning as well as other holdovers from the first film like rival newsman Vince Vaughn, new faces have come aboard for the sequel, including Kristen Wiig, Liam Neeson, Harrison Ford, and Meagan Good, who portrays the team’s new station manager.

McKay said Ford was taken aback at first by his directorial style, in which he’ll give the actors new lines to try between takes.

“He was like, 'What?' when I would yell them out,” McKay said of the new lines in an interview with Moviefone. “Then he was like, 'This is crazy,' and he kind of had fun with it. And then he started liking it and adding his own.” 

“Anchorman 2” is set to hit theaters Dec. 20.

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