‘Anchorman 2’ finally uncorks vintage Burgundy

Adam McKay and Will Ferrell thought they’d gotten over the hard part.

By 2008, the writer-director and star had overcome their initial reluctance to film a sequel to “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,� the fan-cherished comedy that established both men on Hollywood’s star map. And they’d come up with a script that McKay describes as appropriately “bells and whistles-y� to follow up one of the most widely quoted movies of the last quarter-century, a Rosetta Stone of improv humor filled with such loopy non sequiturs as “You are a smelly pirate hooker� and “Sixty-percent of the time, it works every time.�

Moreover, the two had reassembled the original 2004 film’s supporting cast of comedy A-listers — including Vince Vaughn, Steve Carrell, Christina Applegate and Paul Rudd — and even sold Paramount Pictures (which controls the “Anchorman� property) on test-running the new movie as a Broadway play for six months to fine-tune its unique brand of situational, ‘70s-set humor.

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Then in 2009, talks broke down over the price tag.

“I told them the budget is $80 million,� recalled McKay, seated in an editing bay on Paramount’s Hollywood lot. “And they’re like, ‘We’re thinking $35 million.’ ‘We’re like, ‘You’re crazy.’ The first movie did great on cable and DVD, and that’s where it really took off — much like ‘Austin Powers.’ That’s where we stalled. Basically, it was over.�

But thanks to a well-timed 2011 phone call by the director’s powerhouse agent Ari Emmanuel and a fortuitous gap in Paramount’s release schedule as well as budgetary brinkmanship (Ferrell and all the returning stars took a substantial pay cut), “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues,� will finally reach theaters on Dec. 20.

Not that anyone involved let performance anxiety get in the way of the now $50-million so-stupid-it’s-genius brand of humor.

“You can’t go into it worrying about expectations,� McKay said. “Because the whole spirit of ‘Anchorman’ is ‘Who gives a …?’ The way we did the first movie was by not obeying the rules. It’s like being in the Sex Pistols and wondering if you’re in tune.�

Ferrell reprises his role as Scotch-loving, jazz flute-playing Ron Burgundy, who has fallen on hard times; the news-reading narcissist has been downgraded from anchoring San Diego’s top newscast to announcing the dolphin show at Sea World. Set in cable television’s Year Zero — 1980 — Burgundy is recruited by nascent 24-hour news network GNN (a fictional hybrid of CNN and Fox News Network) and brought out to New York with his San Diego team (Rudd, Carrell and David Koechner) for a shot at capturing a national audience.

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There, the “Anchorman� crew must confront uncertainty in the face of change.

“They meet their first openly gay person,� said McKay. “And obviously, the news operation has totally changed. They’re always dealing with change of some kind. And they never do well with change.�

McKay cued up a scene from the hotly awaited sequel on a gigantic monitor. Onscreen, the Channel 4 team meets their strictly-business African American station manager Linda Jackson (Meagan Goode). And Burgundy can’t disguise his shock at his new boss’ skin color.

“Oh … black … I’m terribly sorry. I don’t know why I can’t stop saying … the word black,� Ferrell moronically utters. “If I keep my mouth open, I won’t say it.�

“A black man follows me everywhere when it’s sunny,� offers Carrell’s brain-deficient weatherman, Brick Tamland, prompting Ferrell to point out: “I think that’s your shadow, Brick.�

“We’re all the same on the inside,� concludes Rudd’s Brian Fantana. “Stinky and pink!�

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