The marketing team behind “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” is on the warpath. This is not some media-marketing blitz, even if you’re sending all of the safeties.
This is a burgundy-suited General Sherman marching across America with a scorched-earth policy of scotch and jazz flute. You will know this movie exists, even if you live under a rock. Ron Burgundy will come to your rock, and he will flip it over and force you to behold his impeccable fashion sense and facial hair.
Will Ferrell has taken his character and news reporting abilities to a television screen near you. As Burgundy, dressed to the nines, he interviewed Peyton Manning on ESPN.
When the conversation inevitably turned to mustaches, Burgundy commented that when Peyton’s younger brother, Eli, tried to grow facial hair, it looked like “his upper lip was caked in a mixture of liquid dog crap and cocaine.” He reported the nightly news in Minot, North Dakota on KXNews alongside regular anchor Amber Schatz. He will get you nationally. He will get you locally. You cannot hide.
He’s been spotted coming out of a Milford, Conn., diner with your balanced breakfast of a box of doughnuts and a 40. He’s not one to deny the rest of the world his myriad of talents, though, as he graced our neighbors to the north when he participated in the Olympic trials for curling in Winnipeg.
However, Burgundy is not the only member of the illustrious Channel 4 news team. Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and David Koechner return as Brick, Brian and Champ, respectively. Rudd, who recently starred in indie film “Prince Avalanche,” said the aspect of the first “Anchorman” that drew him to his role was the film’s indie feel, and the second film, despite the massive hype and attention, has not lost that feeling.
“It felt like a very small kind of quirky comedy that we thought was funny that did not seem particularly commercial,” Rudd said during a conference call with media in October. “And I think that spirit still existed this time around even though there were more eyes on us.”
Personally, I’ve found the trailers hit-and-miss. The first trailer didn’t really strike a chord with me, but the second trailer elicited much more laughs. Carell, however, said that the trailer does not even scratch the surface of the film.
“You know, you look at the trailer and you think, ‘Wow … They put everything in that they could, and that’s the entire movie,” he said. “But there’s so much more than is in the trailer and funnier.”
So, what to make of all of this buzz — all of this marketing? Sometimes, when movies blanket the country, it’s to create such a huge buzz for the opening weekend to make up for potential negative word-of-mouth that will infect the following weekend box office takings. Is all of this a guise to mask a potential bomb?
I don’t think this will be the case, and “Anchorman 2” will follow in the dress-shoed footsteps of the original.
Follow Alex Guyton @TDWildcatFilm
