We’ve known for a while that an alternate version of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues exists, and we now know when it will be released.
When we talked to Anchorman 2 director Adam McKay back in December, he revealed to us that the alternate version of the film would be completely different and that every joke in the film had been replaced.
Now, we finally have a release date for that alternate version. It’ll hit theaters on February 28, one week from today.
So far, the only information we have on it is from the trailer below. It says that the film will be in theaters for one week only. It’ll be “supersized” (longer), and unlike the original cut that hit theaters in December, this cut will be rated R. Of the replaced jokes, there will be 763 new ones. It will be released on Blu-ray at a later date.
Check out the trailer:
Thankfully the trailer only features a few of the new jokes; seeing the best ones in the endless advertising campaign certainly hurt the experience during the theatrical run.
Anchorman 2 certainly split audience members. While there were many fans who felt that the film was just as funny as the first, there were others who felt that the humor was a little lackluster. This alternate cut offers something for both parties. If you liked the humor in the first cut, there’s nothing to suggest that this new cut won’t be just as good. They wouldn’t have wasted the time editing this new version if the jokes were not of a certain quality. For those fans who were disappointed, this version will offer a hope for better jokes.
Hypable spoke to director Adam McKay about this new version of the film in late December and he told us that “every single joke” in the original film has been replaced. “It’s about 10-15 minutes longer… whole new runs and riffs.”
McKay and his team shot all these additional jokes while filming so that they never got stuck in a bad moment while editing. “When we’re in that editing room, the worst feeling is when you’re painted into a corner by a crappy joke,” he explained. “With every movie I do, I hate that feeling more and more, so I just make sure to have alternate takes no matter what we’re doing. It’s the greatest. I’ll go to the editor and say, “There’s got to be a better joke than that.”
Interestingly, in our interview from December, McKay says there are 350 new jokes while today the studio is estimating 763. We guess the number depends on how you count each joke and piece of dialogue.
It’s likely that the plot may not be as coherent here, and we wouldn’t be surprised if it might not work well as a movie if you didn’t actually see Anchorman 2 during its theatrical run.
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