Holy crap - is that Bad Ass Billy Gunn?

This news is a few days old, but it’s developing quickly and we had a little too much moonshine at the Uproxx Weiner Eating Contest so you’ll deal with it. Adam McKay has decided that instead of just producing Will Ferrell’s next project, Three Mississippi, he’s going to direct it with the hopes of again capitalizing off of the successful chemistry between Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, as the two will star as rivals from different families that gather annually for a tackle football game.

The ensemble comedy’s script comes from 30 Rock executive producer Robert Carlock and Friends executive producer Scott Silveri. It follows two neighboring families as they do battle in an annual Thanksgiving game of front-lawn tackle football that’s grown increasingly nasty over the years. (Friends fans may recall a similarly intense Thanksgiving-set football happening.)

McKay had already been aboard the project as a producer, but told EW that he wasn’t planning on directing it. Now we hear he’s making it his next project, and that Warners hopes to have it in theaters come next Thanksgiving. (Vulture)

The name of this film was originally Turkey Bowl, but they presumably changed it because Kevin Smith just released his own film called Turkey Bowl, and I assume it’s about a 12-layered dish that can be eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Three Mississippi will also star Alec Baldwin as Wahlberg’s father and I’m sure they’ll have someone equally established as Ferrell’s father, a la James Caan or Robert Duvall. In fact, I’ll predict that Ferrell’s father is either Robert DeNiro or Clint Eastwood, unless he’d like to leave Pink Cadillac as his final comedic performance. And I’m sure they’ll have some hot actresses playing their wives, adorable and quirky children, hilarious cameos, funny accents, loud shouting, and I’ll ultimately leave this movie thinking, “How the hell is it so difficult for you, Sandler?”

Yo, son, these classic fairy tales are like hella boring!   HOLLYWOOD, DROP SOME PHAT BEATS ON THIS BITCH!

The studio is on the cusp of triggering production on the Gary Sanchez project Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, a dark action movie that picks up with the fairy tale siblings years after the traumatic childhood incident has turned them into bounty hunters. Jeremy Renner, who has been attached for some time, finally has his sister in James Bond babe Gemma Arterton.

Director Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow) is hoping to begin shooting the project in Berlin March 7. [THR]

They say “dark action movie”, but Gary Sanchez is Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s production company, and Tommy Wirkola made a movie about nazi zombies that puke blood, so I’m hoping the secret is that this is tongue in cheek or overtly comedic.  Otherwise, look for this tale to LOSE THE FAIRIES AND ADD RAP ROCK!  Yo, Gretel, drop some Red Bulls on the ground so we can find our way back from BASE jumping, TICK TICK TICK… SLUTS!

Play us out, parkour dog.

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I saw The Other Guys over the weekend, and though it was mostly just your standard, reasonably funny Will Ferrell/Adam McKay flick, the part we ended up discussing most after it was over was the closing credit sequence.  Conveniently, that sequence is now online courtesy of Moviefone (don’t watch it if you consider a credit sequence that reveals nothing about the plot a spoiler).  Here’s their description:

‘The Other Guys’ is a parody of old-school buddy-cop movies like the ‘Lethal Weapon’ films, but director/co-writer Adam McKay wanted to give it a realistically grandiose and relevant villain, which is the reason he turned to Wall Street. “All those old movies had drug-smuggling story lines — if you did that now, it would be quaint,” McKay told Entertainment Weekly earlier this summer. “Who gives a s— about guys selling drugs at this point? Crime has taken on massive proportions: destroying the Gulf of Mexico, stealing $80 billion. Stealing a billion dollars is nothing now — that’s almost adorable.”

Buried in the comedy is a serious point about what really constitutes grand theft these days, a point illustrated over the closing credits by a PowerPoint-like presentation full of jazzy infographics and serious statistics outlining just how much Wall Street and corporate leaders have enriched themselves at the expense of American workers and taxpayers. (All this while Rage Against the Machine cover Bob Dylan’s anti-corporate anthem ‘Maggie’s Farm’ on the soundtrack.) Even for moviegoers who are connoisseurs of end-credit sequences, this one stands out as unique.

I like the end-credit sequence on its own, but my first impression when I saw it was “Wow, this is reeeeally out of place.”  When they say the serious point is buried in the comedy, they mean really buried.  The Ponzi-scheme plot never fully came together during the movie, and seemed more like a torn-from-the-headlines premise that was kind of a take-off of cop shows like Law & Order or CSI, just like the rest of the movie was a tongue-in-cheek take-off of mainstream cop stuff.  Which was fine, it was just a skeleton around which to build Will Ferrell improv jokes about Tunas fighting lions and astronaut food and I accepted it as such. If they wanted to make a movie with a serious point, they could have, but it seemed like they didn’t.  The only serious-point part was the end-credits sequence itself, which just makes it feel like a separate entity.

Anyway, sorry for the semi-serious interlude here, it just seemed like a lot of you had seen the film, and that you might want to discuss some of its finer points like gentlemen.  Which is why I put this ascot and top hat on a kitty.

Slight correction: kitty refuses to wear ascot

The early word I’m hearing on Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s The Other Guys is that it’s pants-sh*ttingly funny.  It opens this weekend and my hope is to pay using the refund I demanded after Dinner for Schmucks.  It’s got a great cast, including last week’s Frotcast guest Rob Huebel, and this four-minute clip will introduce you to most of them.  I only watched the first minute or so, because I’m trying not to ruin all the jokes in this before I see it.  You guys can watch it though.  Not like I care what you do.  Anyway, the reviews are starting to trickle in today, and my favorite part is how many people are praising it by pointing out that it’s not like Cop Out.  I’m still waiting for someone to use “Not produced, written, or directed by M. Night Shyamalan” in an opening credit sequence.  I think it’d be effective.

[The Sun]

Here we have the first red-band trailer for The Virginity Hit (a couple swears, but no nudity), a teen sex comedy produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay and written and directed by Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland (don’t freak out, dude, I don’t know who they are either).  While I normally enjoy teen-sex comedies, especially documentary-style ones, as evidenced by my recent purchase of Underage Vagina Party 7, this looks… well, kind of like every other teen-sex comedy, but with worse production values.  Let’s see, we’ve got:

• Shy, dorky, virgin protagonist with loud, chubby best friend
• A botched sexual encounter caught on tape a la American Pie, Road Trip
• A hot girl who meets the protagonist on the internet and offers to take his virginity a la Sex Drive
• A pube-shaving scene (Knocked Up, She’s Out of My League)

That seems like enough clichés for a two-minute trailer.  I’m curious, based on Ferrell and McKay’s track record for discovering funny independent comedies (The Foot Fist Way), but this trailer sure isn’t doing it any favors.  Not to mention, what’s up with all these movies about people under 25 having sex?  Come on, Hollywood, this is real life, not a porno movie.

[via ThePlaylist]