With Anchorman 2 gearing up to shoot, Adam McKay is filling in the new roles. Kristen Wiig recently signed on the star, and now Deadline says another new addition to the Anchorman family is James Marsden.
The actor will play what is described as a rival anchor and nemesis to Will Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy. Little is known about the story, except that it takes place in the late 1970s during the advent of the 24-hour news cycle. Needless to say, the Action 4 News team has trouble adapting to this news format, and we’d imagine Marsden will be a dashing younger newsman who challenges Ron’s more old-fashioned style
Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, and Christina Applegate are all reprising their Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy roles, with Adam McKay directing from a screenplay he co-wrote with Will Ferrell. Production is scheduled to start next month in Atlanta.
For years there were rumours and speculation about a sequel to Anchorman, but even since it was officially announced the progress to production has been painfully slow. However now it’s actually moving towards the shoot, and for the last couple of months it’s been known that producers were trying to get Kristen Wiig to star.
Adam McKay normally only directs movie starring his professional partner, Will Ferrell, but now it seems he’s thinking of leaving Will behind for a bit, as he’s in negotiations to direct a remake of Uptown Saturday Night. David Dobkin was once attached to the project, but is no longer involved.
With plans for Anchorman 2 having come and gone over the years, it was gonna take something quite big to make anyone believe it was actually going to happen, but now Ron Burgundy himself has done just that, appearing on Conan O’Brien’s talks show to officially announce the sequel. And you can see that appearance below.