Comedians Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly are “Step Brothers”

Columbia Pictures’ new comedy “Step Brothers” re-teams Will Ferrell with John C. Reilly and writer-director Adam McKay after the trio’s successful collaboration on the hit comedy “Talladega Nights.”

Ferrell, McKay, and Reilly decided that the experience was so creatively satisfying that they wanted to repeat it. “We sat down, had dinner, and spit-balled all these ideas,” Ferrell remembers.

At the dinner, Ferrell, McKay, and Reilly came up with “pages and pages of ideas, all pretty solid, but all a little restrictive,” says McKay. Then, the next day, as he was trying to come up with the perfect idea, inspiration struck. “Someone mentioned bunk beds for their kids and I thought, ‘I got it.’ Two grown guys, still living at home, their single parents get married, and now they have to share a room.”

“As soon as we heard the idea, we immediately went for it,” Reilly adds. “Imagine if your kids just never really matured and never left the house. I mean, I love my kids, but I really hope they grow up and move out eventually.”

Co-screenwriters Ferrell and McKay tried to ensure that characters that seemed similar on the surface had differences between them that the actors could explore. “John would play Dale, and he would be more of a planner with a ‘business mind’ – even though he has terrible ideas,” Ferrell jokes. “He’s the one with the drive and initiative, such as it is. Brennan, my character, was going to be a little more sensitive, a little more soft-spoken. And he thought of himself as a beautiful singer, but of course has a terrible fear of singing in public.

“From there, we followed those guidelines to build the characters and to write the scenes appropriately, in terms of what these characters would say and do, even though they cross over at times,” Ferrell continues. “I love that about the characters and the movie. Brennan becomes the leader at times and Dale’s the follower. I think that makes it so much more interesting.”

When the script was completed, Ferrell and Reilly started the work of shaping the performances that would bring the characters to life. “I would go home, watching my kids react to not getting something they wanted, or a petty grievance between siblings, and that stuff definitely informed my character,” says Reilly. “In that way, even though it’s an R-rated movie and we get into adult situations, the movie has a lot of innocence and joy to it.”

“With these characters, there’s a fine line between them complementing each other and enabling each other,” adds McKay. “They really should never have met each other – but somehow it works out.”

Opening soon exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas, “Step Brothers” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.