On March 28, 2012, at exactly 9 p.m. “Mountain time,” a miracle happened. Paramount Pictures and Ronald Joseph Aaron Burgundy signed a deal to make a sequel to Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Take a moment. Drink it in. It always goes down smooth. Anchorman 2 is upon us. It was an announcement several years coming. Fans of the cult film have been clamoring for the continued adventures of San Diego’s number one news team. One came in the form of Wake Up, Ron Burgundy, a pseudo-sequel made up of all the deleted scenes from the first movie. It was good for what it was but fans still wanted more. They got it last week and the online world has been buzzing about it. Needless to say, we are huge fans of Anchorman and as Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay begin scripting the film, here are some thoughts maybe even suggestions on what the film can be:
Race to the White House
With campaign season truly underway in the United States, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay might catch some election fever. They could channel that into making the sequel about Ron Burgundy running for the highest seat in the land. Think about it. Burgundy is arrogant enough to believe he’ll make a good president and even dumber to think he’ll win. And his friends from the news team could form his campaign team. Champ Kind could be Ron’s head of security, Brian Fantana as his image consultant, and Brick Tamland can be his political adviser (it was hinted at the end of the first movie that Brick would become a chief adviser to the Bush administration.) Ferrell can do for politics what he’s done for every other genre he’s been in. He may be the only person that can get people excited about politics.
Escape from North Korea
If the writing team is going for social commentary, they might want to travel to the East. North Korea has been in the news lately, so McKay and Ferrell could actually be inspired by it. Here’s how we see that happening: with Burgundy becoming a network anchor, he could do an “Anderson Cooper” or to be more apt, a “Geraldo Rivera,” traveling to North Korea to cover the news. Of course, Ron being Ron, he’ll get into trouble and be imprisoned. It’ll be up to the news team to break Ron out of prison. Having some international flavor in the film won’t be a stretch for Ferrell. His most recent film, Casa de mi Padre, is entirely in Spanish. Also, if Steve Carell and Paul Rudd want more screen time, this might be the perfect set-up for them.
The other burgundy
We don’t really know much about Ron’s life before Channel 4. We haven’t even been introduced to his family. If this is going to be the last Anchorman film, then we think the writers should address it. They could work in the family angle with Ron having to travel back to San Diego due to a death in the family. On his return, he reunites with his old news team, and meets the brother he never knew he had. If this were really going to be the movie, we’d love to see Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation’s Ron Swanson) as Ferrell’s brother. Both Ferrell and Offerman can pull off the mustache almost better than anyone. And they’re both used to playing characters named Ron. It’s a bit simple compared to the previous two “suggestions” but we have faith that Ferrell and Offerman can make it great.
The movie’s still a long way coming but we feel that it’s going to be worth the wait. If you haven’t seen this cult classic, we suggest you take a trip to Pleasure Town and get a copy of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.