“Ooooooklahoma where the wind comes….”
It shouldn’t surprise us when actors decide they want to sing because, hello, have you met actors? Getting them not to sing is the hard part. Seth MacFarlane couldn’t make a 30 second commercial without putting a showtune in it. And so it goes with Anchorman 2, according to director Adam McKay, as he tells 
“There will be some music in ‘Anchorman 2′ though for sure, we have some songs already written,” he shared.
“We were going to do ‘Anchorman 2′ as a Broadway musical first, for like six months and then go shoot the movie. That was our initial idea,” he also added. Does he mean whole sequences? ”Whole song sequences, absolutely,” he said.
“The music sequences we have done — we did ‘Afternoon Delight’ [in 'Anchorman'], Adam Scott and his family singing ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ [in 'Step Brothers'], we did a whole song for ‘Talladega Nights‘ that got cut out, a big, big musical number — we always do it live on the set,” McKay said. “And my thing is, if the actors get freaked out, don’t sweat it, we can always re-record it later. And every time we’ve done it, we end up using the live track from the recording. We’ll probably do it the same way in this.” Though, he cautioned: ”This one might have a little more movement in it, and the only problem with that is the actors get winded.”
Ooh, movement? Does that mean dancing? God, I hope it’s of the Paul Rudd variety:
“Even thought it’s going to be a big silly movie, it’s all about the rise of the new media and 24 hour news cycle, and there’s a lot of interesting points to make about that while being silly,” he said. We asked if Ron Burgundy will get a “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington”-esque moment to make a rallying cry. “It’s been discussed, there’s a little wisp of [talk]. We’d never do it straight ahead, we gotta f*ck with it in some way. Because Ron Burgundy isn’t quite Jimmy Stewart in character, so if he does, he’s not going to do it well,” he explained. “But there’s a little bit of that going on. I mean what is this 24 hours news, and this wall of white noise information, has it really been good for our country? The great thing when you find a point of view like that is that it doesn’t have to be preachy or didactic, it’s also funny. It’s just funny that Americans have to contend with 2000 channels, and 60 different specific news sources, and the confusion that it creates, and the junk that we get to see is hilarious. That’s what we’re always kinda looking for, what’s the point of view that’s got life to it and plays.” [ThePlaylist]
Not to crap in the everybody-loves-Anchorman punch bowl, but Adam McKay talking politics scares me. Not to say you can never make valid points through dick jokes (which is sort of my life’s work, actually), but The Other Guys and Casa de mi Padre both had political elements, and they just came off sort of bizarre in the context of Will Ferrell goofing off (anyone else see the Other Guys credits sequence and suddenly think they were watching a different movie?). If the movie is actually about that, fine, but McKay movies tend to be loosely structured improv quilts, and to suddenly attempt earnest cultural crit in the midst of all the grenade-brandishing silliness… it’s weird. If people took political advice from a guy eating burritos and chugging milk in a phone booth, I’d be president by now.
[McKay pic via Zimbio]